


Changing Skies

by flowerslut



Series: Changing Skies Series [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-17
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-21 04:47:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 51,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4815599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowerslut/pseuds/flowerslut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sasuke was destined to be alone. To lead a life of solitude. Or at least that was what he'd always told himself; he would've never thought that he'd have to fight for a family he never knew he had. He may have chosen to lead a life of isolation, but in the end, it wasn't meant to be.</p><p>Original FF.net publish date: Feb 28, 2013.<br/>Final update date (completed on): May 24, 2014.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be slowly moving this story from my FF account to my AO3 account by posting chunks at a time. If you haven't read this yet, hope you enjoy. If you have, fuck yeah/rock on.

Another year, another summer.

With its hot, sticky days and warm, windy nights. He preferred the nights to days. There were less people to avoid.

Meaning less noise.

This summer so far had been particularly hot and dry. As he walked briskly through the streets, his sandals kicked up dirt around his feet, covering the shoes in a thin layer of the dry dust. On each side of the street, vendors and merchants leaned over their carts and stands, towards the civilians passing through, urging them to buy their bags and clothes and to try their soups and produce. 'Freshly picked' the signs always claimed.

But the bruises on the fruits, as prominent as those on the tiny knees of the street kids, claimed otherwise.

Yet the merchants still boasted about the quality of their goods, calling people toward them, although always staying clear of the brightly-shining sun, always remaining under the protection of the shade.

Brim of his hat turned down slightly, hiding his face from the sun as well as from those around him, he walked in a straight line, not really needing to watch where he was going.

People always gave him a wide birth, staying out of his way. Although they didn't avoid him out of fear, just out of mistrust.

Trust. Just one of those many things hard to come across in the post-war world.

Another year, another birthday.

Today marked the 24th anniversary of the day he entered the world, cursed with a name and a set of eyes he'd never asked for in the first place. Nowadays, the Uchiha name was just about forgotten in the modern world. And where it hadn't been forgotten, it'd been stored away, deep down in the memories of those who had heard it spoken in less peaceful times. When the name would instantly strike fear and ignite a cold sweat in all people, ninja and civilian alike.  
Although now, with the newer generation beginning to rise, most who had come before the newcomers decided to leave the Uchiha name off their lips, and out of the minds of their children and students.

And Sasuke had to admit.

He couldn't have been more relieved.

Years before, as the war had finally wrapped up, and countries began to slowly put themselves back together, it wasn't long before Sasuke retreated back into the shadows, waiting to be forgotten. Hoping for it even.

And after almost 8 years of seclusion, he finally got what he wanted.

To be left completely alone.

He continued to walk in a straight line, towards the one place in this town he was comfortable enough to sit in and have a halfway-decent meal. He wasn't much for eating out—or even going out in public to begin with—but every now and again he decided to wander into town for a rare day of leisure.

Walking through the doors of the izakaya, not bothering to remove his hat, he nodded toward the man behind the bar, who in turn wordlessly poured a drink. Sliding the drink across the counter, Sasuke placed some money on the counter, before taking the glass out of the bartender's hands.

"The usual?" he asked in a gruff, scratchy voice. Sasuke nodded in response before turning and walking toward the back corner of the restaurant. Finding a small table in the corner, he settled himself in a rickety, wooden chair, facing towards the center of the izakaya, so he could see the place entirely from his spot.

It had been over a year since someone had tried to track him down. Not anyone trying to bring him back to his old village—although that had happened half a dozen times in the first year of his absence—but someone looking to receive a nice, hefty bounty and a dangerous pair of eyes.

That was the last man Sasuke had killed.

He partly hoped, for the sake of the fools who thought they could take him out, that the assassination attempts would come to a halt. He didn't want to kill any more people. Even it if was necessary.

Tipping his glass, drinking half of its contents, he placed it down on the old, worn table before him before cracking his neck and settling into his seat.

This was the one place he liked, due to the fact that most other people in the tiny village avoided it. It was old and slightly run-down, with as bad of a reputation as you could have in a place where there were only a few hundred inhabitants.

That was one of the reasons that Sasuke had chosen this place to 'settle down' in. It wasn't even on the map. Just a small town almost exactly halfway between Wind and Earth country.

After the war he had wandered for a bit, stopping in dozens of towns and villages, searching for the place where people wouldn't know of him or the Uchiha, and who would ignore an outsider and ask no questions.

He didn't like this place. But he was content with it.

A young kid, no older than 12, walked up to his table, dropped off a plate of steaming food, and without a word, walked away.

Sasuke also was quite content with the social activity—or lack thereof—in the village. If there wasn't anything that needed to be said, then for the most part, nothing would be said.

Sasuke didn't exactly like the town, but he fit it nicely. Which was something that couldn't be said anywhere else.

Another year.

Sasuke finished his drink before placing the empty glass on the table before him. A  _clink_  resounding in his ears.

Another twelve months of solitude.

But he liked it this way. Ever since he was a child. Solitude was what he knew. It was something he was good at.

Or at least it was what he'd always told himself.


	2. Chapter 2

Taking his time, he picked at the plate before him, grilled vegetables and meat still steaming. After his meal he'd retreat back to his apartment near the outskirts of town. He'd taken residence in a small loft above a tiny craft shop run by a raggedy old woman. After his return he'd most likely start and finish reading another book. Maybe even go for a run into the woods at the far end of town. As he pondered his options the sound of a glass shattering piqued his curiosity.

Glancing toward the bar at the front of the restaurant where he'd gotten his drink, he watched a tiny form pick itself up of the ground, broken glass lay around the child.

"Damnit!" The bartender swore, leaning over the bar and taking note of the child.

As the child stood up, wiping it's hands of the blackened, dirty shirt, it looked up at the bartender with wide, dark eyes. "Look at that fuckin' mess!"

The bartender mumbled to himself some more as he turned back around and searched for something. A mop maybe? Or maybe someone who would get a mop and clean up the mess for him.

The child's long hair fell before her face as she leaned down and began picking up shards of glass with tiny, shaking hands. Looking around, not knowing where to put the pieces, she placed them on a nearby table, a tinkling noise following as the glass hit the table lightly.

"Get outta here!" the bartender yelled, as he showed up around the other side of the counter with a broom in hand. Holding up the broom he nudged it toward the child, trying to usher it out of his restaurant, "No kids allowed."

The child, scared at the man's sudden appearance, dropped the rest of the glass she'd held in her hands and grabbed hold of the straps of a small knapsack she had strapped to her small back.

"Out!" The man yelled, pushing the child roughly, with the straw bristles of the broom, "I'm sick of you nasty street kids bringing your filth around here! Out!"

With a terrified look, the child turned and ran on short legs out towards the exit, slipping and stumbling slightly before running through the front door and out into the hot summer day.

Sasuke then returned his attention towards his meal, now that the tiny disruption in his day had passed. Although the ending of the war had brought peace and civility to most countries, it also produced much more than that.

Thousands of orphaned children for instance. The more populated, wealthier villages did not have as much of a problem with the street-dwelling kids as the smaller, lesser-known towns. There were no government-funded orphanages or foster systems in these smaller villages. Instead, the unfortunate children wandered the streets, desperate for shelter or locating their next meal.

Many died within the first few months of homelessness, but some of the stronger, smarter, and slightly older ones-through some twist of fate-lasted for years.

It wasn't pleasant walking down the street and seeing tiny forms huddled together in corners and alleyways, not knowing whether or not they were sleeping or simply dead. But it was the reality of it all in a post-war world.

Not everyone was better off. Only the more fortunate ones.

Finishing his meal, Sasuke decided to spend the rest of his day somewhere else, where he wouldn't be burdened by the sight of scraggly orphaned children.

Midday finally passing, the sun had begun it's decent down toward the west, edging toward the tops of the trees, shade threatening to spills it's darkness over the entirely of the small town.

Walking back to his apartment took only 15 minutes.

"Ahh there you are!" an old, shaky voice called from a window. Looking up, Sasuke took note of the old woman grinning down at him from the second-story. "Stay right there, I have something for you."

Halting his steps, he silently waited for the woman to make her way to him. After a full minute, she'd finally made the trek down a single flight of stairs, opening the door to her tiny shop. "Come here, come here!" she beckoned, waving her hand toward him.

He turned toward her and slowly approached the doorway, not being shocked when she grabbed him roughly by the sleeve and pulled him after her. Her steps were short and uneven, but she walked quickly, pulling him past the few aisles of various knick-knacks and trinkets.

He was used to this. This old woman calling for him and talking at him and giving him things and meals and all sorts of things. It had been weird at first, and had even made him uncomfortable at times, but he soon grew accustomed to the woman.

Kato Nori was a woman who'd lived through more wars than most people who were still alive. Sasuke was unsure of her exact age, but he knew she was  _at least_ 90 years old.

When he'd first arrived in the tiny village almost two years ago, within 24 hours of his arrival he'd already been approached by the woman. She'd been sitting in a chair outside her shop, watching the passersby, as if looking for something. Sasuke had paused and taken a knee, not far from her front door, to rearrange something in his pack. After standing back up he was almost surprised to see the woman wobbling over towards him. His initial reaction was to ignore her and continue on his way, but once he'd begun to walk away, she'd yelled out to him.

"Now wait just one second!"

Hesitating, Sasuke stopped, waiting for the woman to reach him. As she halted before him, looking up at his face-her head hardly came up to his chest-she stared at him for a long moment, as if looking for something in his features.

"Come with me," she instructed plainly, turning to walk back towards her shop. As she walked, she immediately noticed his lack of movement. "Are you hard of hearing?" she asked, frowning at him, "Come here boy."

He still did not move.

Making a disapproving clicking noise with her tongue, she walked up to him and grabbed his sleeve, "Now don't be dumb now. You can speak can't you?" He scowled in response. "You're new here. Now don't try telling me you have a place to stay. There aren't no inns in this here town. Follow me." Tugging his sleeve, not even waiting for a response, she all but pulled him after her, towards her shop.

Sasuke figured she must have been delusional to pick a stranger up off the street and pull them into her home, but she did just that. Months later, he finally asked why she'd trusted him to live in the vacant floor above hers, without knowing a single thing about him, she'd laughed in his face.

"When you've been around for as long as I have," she said knowingly, "you know how to tell if someone has good intentions or bad."

She never did exaggerate on that, but he never asked her to, so it was a moot point. He just accepted her words and moved on.

As she pulled him up the stairs and towards the door to her floor, she looked up over her shoulder and gave him a big toothless grin. "I found something I thought you'd like!"

Finally releasing his sleeve she walked into her apartment and grabbed something on the table by the door. Handing him the black cloth bag, she waited for him to open it.

Raising an eyebrow at her and then at the bag, he opened it and pulled out a thin, short knife, sheathed in an intricate black and gold casing.

"I saw it at Tsuko's shop this morning and I thought you'd like it."

Unsheathing it, he examined the blade, noting the design etched right into the sharpened metal.

"You can add it to your little collection you got," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "All those ninja toys and such."

Sheathing the knife, he placed it back in the bag and pulled the drawstring closed. "Thank you," he said finally.

Grinning widely, she let out a cackling laugh, "I knew you'd like it! Oh! And before I forget," she turned and walked toward her kitchen, and out of his sight, before returning with a covered container. Handing it to him, Sasuke took note of its warmth. "It's a three-day weekend for me starting tomorrow. So I'm leaving in the morning and I'll be back by noon or so on Tuesday."

Sasuke could smell the fresh food beneath his hands and nodded toward her. He'd tried to refuse her food once before, and only once.

He didn't want to have to hear her ranting and raving about 'ungrateful young brats' ever again.

"There's more where that came from in the freezer downstairs. All you need to do is heat it up and you're good to go! Don't forget to feed the cats. Once in the morning and once at night." She stretched her short body, wrinkled hands high above her head, "Now out you go; I have to catch some sleep so I can be up before the sun."

And with no more left to the conversation, she ushered him out the door and closed it behind him. Sasuke took a moment to look at the container and the bag he now held in his hands.

He hardly ever spoke to the woman. He may have said a total of 200 words to her in the entire two years he'd lived on the floor above her. But she was always extremely hospitable and always giving him things. In return they had this unspoken agreement that he would help keep her ridiculous amount of cats alive during her weekend absences when she traveled to nearby cities, looking for treasures and toys to bring back for her shop.

He figured it was the least he could do to show his gratitude for her hospitality.

Turning toward the stairs he made his trek up to his floor. Opening the door he set his meal down in the tiny kitchen area and the knife down on the counter.

The apartment was quite tiny, but Sasuke did not mind. He didn't require a lot of space anyway. There was a small kitchen and living area, separated by a single counter. A single couch, side table, and bookshelf were all that was in the space opposite to the kitchen, and across from the couch was a door that led to a small bedroom. Next to that door was another that led to a small bathroom.

The place was small, but Sasuke was more than content with the surroundings.

Looking out the only window in the apartment, he looked out at the street and at the setting sun in the distance. Taking note of the dark incoming clouds, he decided to spend the rest of his day indoors. And as the distant sound of thunder reached his ears, he decided that reading a book would be a better idea than going out for a late-night run.

As he sat down on the couch with a book he'd read twice before, he decided that when it came to birthdays, this had been a halfway decent one.

No complaints here.

* * *

The sound of a crash outside the front door of the shop is what riled Sasuke out of his sleep the following morning. Throwing off the covers and rolling out of bed with a yawn and a stretch, Sasuke grabbed a shirt before walking out into the living area. Approaching the window and looking down toward the street, he took note of the overturned trashcan, spilling damp garbage across the front step.

Rain steadily fell, the sky overcast and gray. Sasuke was tempted to leave the trash where it lay, but he knew that with the rain, it would just make a disgusting mess even worse. And smellier.

Throwing on his shirt he slowly made his way downstairs. Walking through the shop and approaching the front door, he saw something flash by the window.

Opening the door to the front step, he was met by a small body with a mess of long, dark hair. The child was hunched over the over-turned trash can, picking around its wet contents, assumedly looking for food.

It appeared as though the child hadn't taken note of his presence, but when he sighed and took a step towards the overturned can, the child let out a quiet yelp as it stumbled and fell on its backside in the mud.

As it looked up at him with dark eyes, he recognized the terrified stare as the little girl from the bar the day before. She scooted back slightly, dragging her backside in the mud, her small hands sinking into the soft ground as she moved herself away from him.

Ignoring the child as best as he could, he grimaced as he picked up the larger pieces of garbage and threw them back into the bin, which he had turned right-side-up. When he looked back down at the little girl, she panicked at his gaze and scrambled to her feet as she sprinted across the road and into an alley across from the entrance to Nori's shop.

There weren't many street children in this town anymore. Most of them had died in the streets, due to exposure or starvation, or even a mixture of the two. So seeing another orphan wandering in the rain wasn't a common sight anymore, and it wasn't welcome either.

Sighing he turned back into the shop, dragging the can with him. He'd place it by the door until the rain stopped, and bring it back out the following morning. Maybe the child would leave to some other part of town by then and dig in someone else's trash.

The rest of the day was spent with Sasuke feeding the cats when the appropriate times came, and finishing the book he'd started the night before. Upon nightfall when the rain began to subside, he decided he'd pay the forest a visit the following morning, when the ground was dry and the sky was clear again. He needed to get out and stretch his legs.

And maybe even test out the knife Nori had given him.

When daybreak finally arrived, and when the first signs of the sun were beginning to shine through the trees, Sasuke pulled on a few pieces of gear, including a couple kunai knives and some shuriken, and made his way toward the door.

Upon opening the door, he pulled the trash with him, setting the can on the now-dry dirt in front of the door, and as the door closed shut, he immediately took off toward the woods, moving too fast for anyone who was currently awake to follow.

Another thing he liked about this village was the abundance of free space. And that free space came in the form of an extensive forest, miles long in almost every direction.

Pushing his legs harder and carrying his weight faster, he traveled through the treetops with incredible speed, allowing the cool morning air to awaken his senses and rejuvenate his mind.

He spent the morning with some simple target practice and even practicing a couple of jutsu.

Sasuke didn't train to improve his skills or to get stronger anymore. His past need for power and strength had dissipated with the ending of the war. Now, being out in the forest with his weapons and gear was something that was almost therapeutic to him. It was something he knew, something he was familiar with, and something he was good at.

Something Nori had told him once as he woke to travel around in the forest at daybreak, "Once a ninja, always a ninja." She'd winked and opened the door for him, and he was gone in the blink of an eye.

They'd never once discussed Sasuke's past and he had never even insinuated that he'd been a ninja, but the old woman was sharp and never missed a beat. He could have asked her how she'd known, but again, he was never one to initiate conversation.

So he never found out how.

Throwing a kunai knife and watching it embed itself into a low-hanging branch of a tree, he was shocked when he heard a shrill scream and saw a small body fall from the tree to the ground.

In a split second he was at the base of the tree, reaching up to yank the knife out of the bark while simultaneously peering around the trunk of the tree, to locate the source of the noise.

And yet again, a dark, timid set of eyes stared back at him in terror. The mouth of the small street child—the one he'd encountered twice before—was hung open in a shocked 'o' as the child looked up at him, cradling her bloody, scraped elbow with her hand.

Sasuke had taken half a step toward the child when she screamed at him.

"STAY BACK!"

He was almost taken aback by the sheer power and force the small child exerted with her shout. Watching curiously, he witnessed her reach around to her backpack and quickly retrieve a kunai knife, much like his own, only slightly smaller in size. She held the weapon up in front of her, with shaky arms.

"P-please don't k-kill me," she pleaded in a quiet voice. And as if a trigger had been pulled, the child immediately began to sob.

There were few things in the world that Uchiha Sasuke was not equipped to deal with, and crying children was one of them.

Placing his kunai back in his pack, he showed her his empty hands, trying to see if that would stop the insufferable screeching from bellowing out of the little girl's body.

The crying did quiet, but it did not cease. Her short arms did not lower her kunai. And she never took her eyes off of Sasuke's face.

"Please don't," she whispered, "I'll answer any questions you ask me just," she chocked back a sob, "please don't hurt me."

Confused and slightly dumbfounded, Sasuke raised an eyebrow as well as his hands before him.

"I'm not going to kill you," he said plainly.

The child kept her knife pointed at him. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Sasuke did  _not_ feel like dealing with this today. Slightly annoyed, he crossed his arms and watched as the child wiped at her face with a dirty palm, smearing mud across her face.

"How do I know that you're not just lying!" She shocked him by snapping at him. Her fear dissipating as she yelled.

Trying to keep his patience, he reached into his pack and pulled out the knife Nori had given him. For the first time, the child took her eyes off his face, but only to stare with terrified eyes at the knife.

Slowly, trying not to startle the noisy child any further, he held the knife, sheath and all, toward her, handle first. The child stared at it for a full minute before taking a cautious hand and reaching out for it. The moment her hand touched the handle she yanked the knife from its sheath, scooted back a little bit and pointed it at him.

She studied him for a long moment before finally relaxing slightly. She did not lower either of the weapons she bore, but she did straighten her posture and calm her crying.

"So you're not going to hurt me?"

"What makes you think I'd do that?" Sasuke asked bluntly.

"'Cause lots of people try to," she said matter-of-factly.

He raised an eyebrow, "And why's that?"

She quickly closed her mouth and winced slightly. "I'm not supposed to talk about it."

Taking a moment to collect his thoughts, he observed the child once more. She had a dark shirt on, matched with shorts of the same color. Her sandals were worn and covered thickly with mud. The main thing that stood out to him was the bag she was carrying around. Not many street children actually had belongings they carried with them.

The realization hit him in an instant.

She child wasn't an orphaned street kid. She was a refugee. Running from something. Or someone, who was trying to hurt-or even kill-her.

The girl placed her kunai in her bag with a shaky arm and offered Sasuke his knife back. Brushing her long, tangled hair out of her face she stood up and waited for him to take it.

Sheathing the knife, Sasuke continued to study the child. Travelling alone at such a young age?

"Where are your parents?"

No reply.

He frowned. "Where are you from?"

She pursed her lips and looked up to him almost guiltily. He let out a tired breath. He really  _really_  didn't feel like dealing with this today.

Placing his knife back in his pack, he turned and began walking towards the village. He didn't want to busy himself with a child's problems-or even with a child in general.

After a few minutes of traveling, he noted that the child was following him. Trying to ignore her, he figured that she'd stop following him once they reached the village. But as the minutes passed and the closer they got to the village, the closer the child shuffled towards him. Even as they crossed into the clearing at the end of the village, the child stayed close behind him, following his every step. He was only a block from his apartment when he turned to face her.

She stopped just as suddenly as he had and looked up at him nervously, her hands grasping at the hem of her shirt. Neither said a word for a long moment, remaining focused on one another while people walked through the roads, not paying either of them any attention.

When the child said nothing, he turned to walk to the front steps of the shop when she scurried up behind him once more.

"I'm 7."

Glancing over his shoulder at the tiny girl behind him, he raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Hm?"

"I'm 7 years old," she mumbled quietly. "I think I'm allowed to tell you that."

"Why are you telling me at all?"

She seemed embarrassed and looked at her feet as she picked at her shirt's hem further. "You don't know who I am." Sasuke gave her a blank look that basically said ' _So_ _?_ '. "So that's means I can trust you."

If he were the type of person who was inclined to enjoy ironic jokes, he would've laughed at the statement. This child had a very misguided sense of who to trust and who not to trust.

"How do you know I won't kill you?" he asked bluntly, waiting for a reaction.

She flinched slightly at the statement, but recovered surprisingly quickly. "But you said you won't so I can trust you."

"What do you want?"

"Uh, I…" she mumbled quietly to herself. So quiet that Sasuke couldn't make out her words. So instead of asking her to repeat herself, she waited for her to do it on her own. "I'm a little hungry."

Taking note of her sunken cheekbones, and scraggly arms and legs, he realized that she probably wasn't too many days away from starvation.

He wanted more than anything to be able to walk away and close the door in this child's face, forgetting about the screeching tears and the idiotic declarations of trust. But as he glanced down at her face, he almost saw himself in the child. Alone, scared, and without any sort of family.

When he turned and walked toward the door, he could almost feel the child's face falling into a frown, but as he opened the door and turned toward the child, her face lit up with surprise quickly followed by a bright grin.

As the child scrambled towards him, she stepped through the door and immediately removed her muddy shoes. Looking around to find a place to put them, she looked up at him for help. Without answering her unspoken question he began to walk into the shop and toward the stairs behind the counter. After they passed Nori's floor, he glanced over his shoulder quickly to watch the girl tip-toe behind him up the stairs, her shoes in her hands. A small trail of dirt falling behind her.

He sighed as they reached his floor.

He knew he was going to regret this.


	3. Chapter 3

Not wanting her to dirty up his apartment, he'd made her leave her shoes outside his door. She now stood on dirty, small feet in the middle of the tiled floor of the tiny kitchen as Sasuke dug through his cupboards. Pulling out a box of unopened crackers, he looked from the box, to the girl, and back again.

Kids liked crackers, right?

Handing her the box, watching as she gripped it with shaky fingers, he walked out of the kitchen and toward his bedroom. Grabbing a few items he walked back out and opened the bathroom door, readying himself to take a shower and wash away the morning's dirt and sweat, he glanced back into the kitchen to see the child sitting cross-legged on the ground, eating cracker after cracker straight out of the box.

He figured after it was fed and not filthy, he'd be able to get it where it needed to go.

There was no way he was having a kid stick around in his apartment.

He made his shower quick, not fully trusting the scraggly child to be alone out in his kitchen. As he imagined cupboard drawers open and food strewn about the kitchen, he quickly stepped out of the shower, dried himself off and got dressed.

Opening the door and walking out toward the main area he slowly approached the kitchen. The now-empty box lay abandoned in the middle of the floor. She was now standing on the tips of her toes, peeking through a cupboard, but he noted she did not take any more food.

Watching for a few more seconds as she opened another cupboard and scanned it he decided to make his presence known and walked into the kitchen with purposefully heavy steps.

Jumping in shock, the girl jumped back from the cupboard, letting the wooden doors fall shut with a quick  _snap_. "I was just looking for a glass," she said quietly, "I'm sorry," she spoke, her lip beginning to tremble, and her eyes beginning to fill with tears.

Great.

More tears.

Ignoring the child's imminent crying he walked towards his cupboards and pulled a cup off of a high shelf. Filling it with water he handed it to her. She took it in her grasp just as her tears had begun to fall, but upon sight of the water she rubbed the tears off her face and smiled up at him with a teary grin. "Thank you!"

He stared at the child for a second longer and then left the kitchen, retreating to his bedroom once more. Closing the door he sat on his bed and ran his hand down his face. What was he doing?

A part of his head justified his actions with the fact that life had grown boring in this desolate town, might as well do something a little different. He'd been contemplating over the course of the past few weeks whether or not it was time to move on from this town. Although every time he genuinely gave it a thought, he realized the pros of sticking around heavily outweighed the cons.

It had taken him years to find a place to stay; he didn't want to push his luck by abandoning his adopted home in search of something potentially 'better'.

He'd let the child stay until Nori returned, then he'd pass the child off to her. She was more equipped to deal with children than he was. And she'd probably be better off helping the child get to where she needed to go. He didn't want the thing around for too long.

Realizing he also didn't want it to turn his apartment into a huge mess, he grabbed a towel and walked back out into the kitchen. The child was filling up the glass with his faucet and turning around, with the glass already tilted up and the water already being gulped down hungrily, she looked at him through the glass as she drank.

When she finished the glass, almost impressively quick, she made a satisfied 'ah' sound, before placing the glass on the counter and grinning up at him.

"What's your name?" she asked him, a pensive look on her tiny face.

Ignoring her question, he handed her the towel. "The bathroom's that way." He nodded toward the opened door across the room.

"That's a funny name," she giggled at her own joke, before  _skipping_  past him and into the bathroom, closing the door.

Sighing, he pinched the bridge of his nose.

No. There was no way he was equipped to deal with this.

Suddenly the door opened once more-only a crack-and a tiny arm held out a small fist full of crumpled dirty clothes.

"What?" he stared at the small, dirty arm.

"They're dirty!"

"So?" he crossed his arms, not moving from his spot in the kitchen.

"I can't put dirty clothes back on!" She spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

No, this was definitely not another street kid.

Street kids were nowhere near as high maintenance as this child was. They'd be happy with just a set of clothes with only a few holes in it. This child was expecting him to wash her clothes?

"Do you want me to just put them down?" she said unsure, lowering the clothes towards the floor just outside the bathroom door. Not wanting his apartment to be dirtied any further by the filthy child, he strode towards the door and grabbed the tiny garments out of her hand.

Just as he took hold of them, she quickly closed the door, "Thank you!" she called in a sing-song voice. He waited until he heard the shower turn on before looking down at the filthy clothes he held.

He was annoyed at the child's expectations of him. He was not about to do a dirty child's laundry.

Walking into the kitchen he retrieved a bucket from underneath the sink. Filling it with water and placing it on the kitchen floor, he placed the clothes inside allowing the water to swallow them whole.

This was as much as he was doing. She could wash her own clothes when she was out of the bathroom. Kids that age knew how to clean their own belongings, didn't they?

Sasuke had to learn at that age, so why couldn't this child? He had to learn out of necessity and so would she.

Walking out of the kitchen and over to the couch he took a seat and sighed, leaning his head back against the wall behind him. He'd been planning on staying in the forest for a few hours longer, but now his little interruption—which was now currently bathing only a few meters away—had thwarted those previous plans.

He supposed he could read some more or even write for a little bit. He didn't find himself particularly good at writing, but much like throwing kunai knives and shuriken at targets, it was oddly therapeutic. It had helped to calm him multiple times over the years, and even helped him to try to regain control over his life and to bring back the person he used to be.

The person he was back before his bloodlust consumed him.

He was different. Different from when he lived in Konoha all those years back, but also different from when he travelled the countries as a rouge ninja, searching for nothing but revenge, strength, and power.

At times he didn't know if he thought the improvements he was making were even that: improvements. He still found himself fighting sickening urges, thinking selfish, awful thoughts, and even wondering if he'd been better off being executed back at the end of the war.

That's what a majority of the Great Nations had called for originally. He had been declared a missing-nin, he was a murderer, and he'd betrayed his village and all those who'd inhabited it. There'd been a bounty on his head larger than anyone could even fathom, and he soon learned that the name of Uchiha sent cries of fear out of the mouths and shivers of terror down the spines of all who lived through the war. The worst part of that was the sickening joy he found in that with one glance of his sharingan, people would know that he would kill them if they got in their way, and due to this he was avoided and feared by many.

Yes, he would have been killed soon after the war's end, if it hadn't been for Uzumaki Naruto.

Towards the end of the war, Sasuke—and his remaining teammates Suigetsu and Juugo—decided to team up with the allied shinobi. Upon arrival at one of the main bases, they were attacked immediately, but after some interference from a few old faces he hadn't seen in a while—mainly Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Hinata, and Naruto himself—the ninja had backed off, although extremely reluctantly. They were immediately taken into temporary custody.

Word was immediately sent to the Kage that he'd arrived on the base, claiming alliance to the other shinobi in order to fight the war. He was almost scheduled for execution that very night; he'd been on the verge of escaping his custody—regardless of who he would have to kill to get out—when he realized the extent of the influence that Naruto had on many of the Nations' leaders.

He'd asked for them to postpone any sort of trial and to hold off on taking any form of action against the rouge Uchiha since he was offering his assistance toward the war effort. He'd insisted that Sasuke's help was vital in ensuring their victory in the war and that with him, their chances of victory would increase exponentially.

"Without you on their side," Naruto had explained to him in the privacy of his tent the next morning, "it puts them at more of a disadvantage."

"I was never on their ' _side_ '," Sasuke had countered angrily.

"As far as most of the Kage are concerned, that's not the case. Look," Naruto had sighed and taken a seat next to Sasuke on his cot, "I'm trying my hardest here to make sure they don't kill you—you of all people should know that's not an easy fucking task to achieve at this point!" He threw his arms up, exasperated. Sasuke said nothing. "I used the whole 'Team 7' card you know?" he said, turning to him and smiling with that old, dumb grin that Sasuke had seen so often as a child. "I insisted that with a week's worth of practice and training, you, Sakura, and I would be readjusted to one another again and we'd be able to fight as a team flawlessly. That's one of the things that got the Hokage and the Mizukage on our side at least."

"And the rest?" Sasuke asked in a monotone voice, eyebrow raised.

"Well," Naruto scratched the back of his head, "the Raikage still wants you dead—sorry," he shot Sasuke a sympathetic grin, "but the Tsuchikage seems a little on the fence, which isn't  _totally_  bad!"

"And the Kazakage?"

"Gaara actually didn't say anything," he admitted. "To be honest I think he wants to talk to you himself."

Sasuke lowered his head in exhaustion and groaned; the last time he'd seen the ex-jinchuuriki, he'd tried to kill him. Now that he really thought about it, the same thing went for Sakura as well.

"What about Sakura…" he didn't know how to phrase his question, but knowing he'd have to work alongside her, after attempting to kill her only months prior, made him a bit uneasy. If she wouldn't be willing to work with him, it would exponentially harm his chances of escaping execution.

Though, she'd tried killing him that day too, so maybe she'd have no problem with his death at the Great Nations' hands…

"I don't know," Naruto said reluctantly, "I'll have to talk to her. She'd due in later today."

"I won't get my hopes up," Sasuke deadpanned.

"She still loves you," Naruto said matter-of-factly.

"She's an idiot then."

Naruto laughed lightly in reply, shaking his head. "I've missed you, Sasuke."

He did not reply. Instead he kept his gaze focused on the entrance of the tent, watching through the opening as ninja from all different nations walked about, preparing themselves for battle.

As he observed them, he vaguely wondered how many of them would die on the battlefield. Some said that it was an honorable death for a shinobi, but Sasuke knew all too well how that was simply another thing that the older ninja would tell the younger generation, so that they wouldn't fear their likely death of a kunai to the throat or a blade through the heart, amidst a battle.

"Try and have a little hope, eh?" Naruto said as he stood and walked toward the tent's only entrance and exit. "Things are going to be alright."


	4. Chapter 4

The sound of a door opening brought Sasuke out of his thoughts. Lifting his head towards the door he saw a small face with a head of wet hair peek around to glance at him. "Where are my clothes?"

He pointed toward the kitchen and to where the bucket currently lay. The girl looked at the bucket, to him, and back again.

"Are they clean?"

"No."

She frowned, "Why not?"

"You can do it yourself."

Scowling, she closed the door again—a little roughly. "Close your eyes!" she called. Sasuke could hear the frustration in her small voice.

"Why?"

"I need to get them and wash them since you won't freaking do it!" she yelled back.

"Then get them."

"I'm in a towel and you're not allowed to look! That's what perverts do!"

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched and he had to resist the urge to kick the child out of his apartment at that moment, but after he took a deep breath and calmed himself down, he sighed and did as the child requested. Lifting up an arm he lazily covered his eyes with his left hand. "Fine."

Moments later, he heard a door open and could only picture the child peeking around at him again, to check to see if he was lying or not. And soon after, the quiet sound of bare feet running across the kitchen tile made Sasuke aware of her location. He could then hear the tell-tale sign of her struggling to life the heavy bucket of water.

"Adults are supposed to do laundry and stuff," he heard her mutter to herself as she took heavy, uneven steps back toward the bathroom. "Kids aren't supposed to do this. Everyone knows that."

"You're old enough."

"I'm 7!" she yelled back.

"Old enough," he repeated, eyes still covered, head still leaning back against the wall.

She let out a final grunt of frustration before he heard the sound of something heavy hitting the ground and the sound of the door closing once more. "You can open your eyes now!" she called a few seconds later. Although Sasuke had already set his hand back down the moment the door had reclosed.

For a moment he was glad that he didn't—and would never—have any children. He'd probably end up giving it away to the first little old lady he found.

Looking out the window and at the mid-day sun, he wished for the weekend to come to a close, and for Nori to hurry up and return. He had something... well, some _one_  to give her.

"How old are you?" The child was currently sitting on the floor directly before him, knees crossed, hands in her lap. Sasuke peered at the child over his book for a moment, before returning his attention back to the carefully typed pages.

After showering and washing her clothes—"As best as I could!" she'd insisted—she'd occupied herself with exploring the main area of his apartment, which wasn't much to explore to begin with. There were very few things that would hold a child's interest for more than a minute, and after looking at each and every book on the large shelf (that she could reach), she'd resolved to simply sitting quietly.

Well, quietly until now.

Although he had to give the child a little bit of credit. She'd been quiet for a few hours. The sun had set a little under an hour before, and she'd been completely content with sitting in front of him and watching him read for the time being. She'd gotten up once or twice to get another glass of water or to use the bathroom, but that had been it.

When she'd originally sat on the floor, with her still-wet pants, he'd grimaced and left to fetch another towel to put underneath the damp child. She'd insisted that she was all clean so "it was okay", but he threw the towel at her anyway and stood before her, waiting for her to fold it and sit on it, and only moving after she did so.

"Mister?" she said, trying to get his attention, "What's your name?"

"You don't need to know."

She frowned, her features contorting into something Sasuke could only refer to as a pout. "Why not?"

"You just don't."

"But you're letting me stay here. So you should let me know your name so I can thank you properly and stuff!" she said, trying to support her question as best as she could.

"It's Sasuke."

"Sasuke what?"

"You don't need to know."

She frowned, but Sasuke was nowhere near about to let the Uchiha surname slip through his lips. He hadn't spoken it in years, and he didn't want to start again now.

"Well thank you very much Sasuke-san!" She paused for a couple minutes before speaking once more, "I guess that means I can tell you my first name, too. I mean, I think I can do that?" she said, almost asking herself a question more than stating anything. "But I'm Katahana! You can call me Hana though. That's what Uncle calls me!"

Sasuke resumed ignoring the child as she spoke, only paying attention to her name. Katahana. He'd have to make sure to remember that in case the child decided to be secretive again and not answer even his simplest questions. The child must've been so starved for attention and conversation, she seemed eager to talk now.

Pausing in his reading, he realized that might finally work to his advantage.

"So where did you say you're from again?"

"I'm from—" she immediately stopped herself. "I, um, I'm sorry Sasuke-san but I'm really really really not supposed to talk about that!"

"Why's that?"

"My Mom told me that it was dangerous."

"Dangerous?" she little girl nodded, a scared look in her eyes once more. "Someone's after you then."

She bit her lip and shrugged, "I guess so…" she spoke in a small voice. Sasuke could hear the sadness in her voice and he couldn't help his curiosity.

"What happened to your parents Katahana?"

Her eyes began to water as she spoke, "I got separated from my mother a couple weeks ago." Tears began to silently make their way down her cheeks. "I don't know what happened to her. We were walking to Sunagakure and a group of people just attacked us." She let out a quiet sob, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. "She told me to run and I didn't want to but I had to!" She kept crying. "She told me they'd kill me if I didn't, and that she'd be alright and come find me. But she hasn't come yet."

A wave of hysteria encompassed Katahana as she buried her head into her knees, trying to drown out the sound of her cries. "I don't want her to be dead," she cried.

Sasuke wanted the child to stop crying, but he didn't want to lie to her and tell her that her mother was probably completely alright. From hearing what she was saying, the likelihood of the woman being dead was pretty overwhelming. But there was no way in hell he was going to say that to the sobbing 7 year old before him.

"Why are people after you two?"

She took a minute to try and calm down, then after lifting her head back up to make eye contact with Sasuke she responded with a shaky voice. "It's just me they want. And I don't really know why, but Mom says it's because I have something that they want." She wiped a tear-streaked face on her arm, "We've been travelling for a few months now to different villages. But," she held back another sob, "I just want to go home!"

Sasuke closed his book and set it down beside him as he studied the child, who was currently working to contain her hysteria and keep her sobbing at bay. "Where is home Katahana?" he asked, his eyes narrowed at her.

She shook her head tiredly before lowering it back down to her knees. "I'm not allowed to say that," she mumbled, "I'm sorry," she said, her voice hitching at the end.

Sasuke did not ask any further questions for the duration of the evening. He'd stood up and allowed the child to cry for a little longer, while he went and dug around his refrigerator. Heating up leftovers he made two plates—something he'd never done the entire time he'd lived here—and after setting the plates on the table he walked over to the child and looked down on her. She still sat with her head down and her arms wrapped around her legs. Not knowing what to do, he nudged her gently with his foot.

Looking up at him with reddened, tired eyes, she yawned and stood up, wordlessly following him into the kitchen.

The two ate in silence. After the meal Sasuke grabbed the only spare blanket he kept around and handed it to the child, whose eyelids appeared to be getting heavier and heavier by the minute. He then led her to the couch, where she immediately curled up and closed her eyes. She was asleep in minutes.

Laying down to sleep that night, Sasuke's last thoughts centered around little Katahana and her mother, and couldn't help but wonder what exactly was going on in the child's life that was causing all their turmoil.

He justified these thoughts by telling himself that the only reason he was interested was because it had been so long since something interesting had happened in his life.

Closing his eyes to allow sleep to overcome him, he had to admit…

It had been quite a while since he'd been on an adventure.

* * *

"What are you doing here?"

Sasuke did not respond, nor did he even turn his head to acknowledge the person who spoke to him. Instead he lay on his cot, arms behind his head, staring up at the ceiling of the tent.

" _Sasuke_ ," the voice growled angrily. Almost warning him:  _don't ignore me_.

"I'm here to fight."

"You're always fighting. Whose side are you playing on now?"

"Your guys' side, obviously."

"No, it's not obvious,  _Sasuke_ ," the person snapped, "so don't act like it should be so easy to tell where your allegiance lies. Until an hour ago you were an enemy of the allied forces, and now you want to team up with us?"

Sasuke chose to ignore them, and continued on staring at the ceiling, although there really was nothing worth staring it. Regardless, it was better than having to face the angry ninja who stood mere feet away.

"You better start giving me some damn answers, Sasuke!"

"I don't need to do anything."

"No! Not this again," the voice warned, "you don't have a say in that anymore. When you're asked something, you're expected to answer it. So if I want to know why you're here, you better tell me!"

"Or what?"

"If you refuse to cooperate, then you'll be deemed a threat to the allied forces and not only will you be imprisoned indefinitely, you'll be executed before this war even ends!"

He frowned, "Who says I'm being uncooperative?" he said scathingly, "I've been telling everything that needs to be told to Naruto. I don't need to be talking to every damn person who walks in here," he said, his voice beginning to rise out of frustration.

"Naruto is not the only one who needs to know these things, but I do too!"

Sitting up and swinging his legs over the edge, he stood and faced his opponent, glare etched on his face. "I don't owe you anything," he said, his voice low and deadly.

"Like hell you don't!" Frustration getting the better of her, the ninja stormed up to him, refusing to break eye contact.

"Sakura…" he warned, staring down at her. Outside he could hear slight shuffling.

"What? You want to try and kill me again? Drive your chidori through my chest?" she laughed mockingly, "You'd be dead before you got the chance."

Peering around her and through the small entry into the tent, he spotted two familiar faces. His Team 7 replacement, Sai, and the Inuzuka, Kiba, who stood with his dog, glaring into the tent at the pair. Sasuke couldn't tell whether the growling was from the boy or his mutt. The two were both poised to attack at the slightest provocation.

The arrogant side of Sasuke knew that these two posed no threat to him, and he'd be able to defeat them both easily, but his more rational side tried to ignore them and focus on the furious kunoichi who stood before him.

"You want to try and stab me with a poison kunai again?" he finally countered, resuming their eye contact.

"To be honest? Yeah, I really  _really_ do right now." Sasuke could see in her eyes that she was not bluffing. His scowl deepened. He wasn't used to seeing this look on Sakura's face. It was a look of pure anger. Of  _hatred_. "But I promised Naruto I wouldn't," she said, as if trying to make a joke at his expense. As if the only thing keeping her from trying to kill him was Naruto. Sasuke wanted to roll his eyes, but he kept them focused on hers.

" _She still loves you…_ "

Naruto's words echoed in his head, and he knew that although those words had been true for years, there was no way this woman, with her glare holding strong, and her hands itching to beat him into the ground, held any sort of love for him.

"I'm here to fight alongside you guys. My reasons are my own. But they need to be stopped. You guys won't be able to do it without me. And I won't be able to do it without you," he admitted, not breaking eye contact as he spoke to her in a low and serious tone.

"And after the war? What then? You go back to trying to destroy Konoha? You try killing your friends again?" she asked taking another step closer to him, still seething with anger.

"I have no plans for after the war right now," he said honestly, staring down at her. He could feel her hot, angry breath against the base of his throat. "Right now, my only plans are fighting this war, and trying not to die."

Sakura studied his face for a long moment, as if looking for sincerity, or maybe even a sign of the boy she had been teammates with all those years before. "You won't return."

She was not asking him. It was as if she knew. It wasn't a question worth asking; she seemed to have come to the terms that he would never be returning to Konoha, and that everything she and Naruto had fought for over these years had all been in vain.

"I won't," he confirmed. She seemed to study his face for a moment longer before quickly turning around and storming out of the tent. She returned seconds later, glare still on her features.

"Inoichi is going to examine you later," she informed him, "so we'll know you aren't just trying to deceive us. Then after that the Kazekage and the Hokage will be here to speak with you. After that, they'll meet back with the rest of the Kage to make their final decision." She grinned sarcastically. "If they decide not to kill you and to let you fight, then tomorrow morning, you, Naruto, and I begin training."

Sasuke said nothing further to the kunoichi, but watched as she stormed out once more and left his sight. Not long after, Sai and Kiba left as well, but not before receiving more glares from the Inuzuka.

Lying back down on his cot, he willed himself to calm down so he'd be able to think clearly.  _One down_ , he thought humorlessly. He tried to tell himself that his reunion with Sakura had gone better than it could've, and that he should try to remember where his priorities lay.

So if, in order to win this war, he needed to cooperate with the pink-haired girl and the idiotic blonde, he'd have to do it. Regardless of how much he didn't want to.

And he really, really didn't want to.

Within the hour the Yamanaka had paid him a visit, along with two nameless shinobi who stood by quietly. He'd placed a hand on Sasuke's head and kept it there for a good twenty minutes. After digging through his subconscious and memories, something that Sasuke found extremely intrusive and equally infuriating, the man dropped his hand from Sasuke's head and opened his eyes, which immediately found Sasuke's.

The man gave him a sad, yet strangely warm smile, before announcing to the other two that he was finished and quickly turned and left.

The smile had made him uncomfortable at first, but if that was a sign that things might work in Sasuke's favor, he'd have to wait by and do as Naruto said; be hopeful.

With nothing more to do, he lay down on his cot once more and allowed himself to sleep for a little. A couple hours after, the sound of people entering his tent roused him from his sleep and—as a reflex—he quickly shot on his feet and took on a defensive position, hands habitually reaching for his sword, which he'd momentarily forgotten had been taken from him upon his entrance to the base.

Standing before him was the Hokage he knew as Tsunade of the Legendary Sannin, and by her side, the Kazakage, Gaara of the Sand. His sand was already prepared to restrain him, especially at the sight of Sasuke's reaction to their entrance. But as Sasuke relaxed his stance, the sand fell motionless.

"Uchiha Sasuke," the young Kazakage spoke quietly, "It's quite a surprise to see you here."

"I'm here to help," he said flatly. "I'm sure you're  _both_  aware of that by now." He put no effort toward being polite. He was going to tell them what they needed to know, and answer their questions, but he would not give them the respect their titles demanded. They'd have to earn his respect.

"We're fully aware," Tsunade spoke, glaring much like her student had hours prior, "that's why everyone in this entire damn base is on edge." At the sight of Sasuke's slight smirk, her glare intensified, "And I'll have you know that unless we get undeniable proof that you're here with nothing but good intentions, then you will not live to see the next sunrise. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal," Sasuke deadpanned, smirk now gone from his face.

"Inoichi Yamanaka spoke with us about his findings, and so far things look promising." Gaara folded his arms and leaned back as he spoke calmly and confidently. "He'll be reporting them at the meeting tonight."

"When will I know whether or not I die?" Sasuke asked, "Because to be perfectly honest that's really the only thing I care about right now." Self-preservation. It was the most important rule Sasuke lived by. Rule number one.

"You'll find out as soon as the meeting is done. There will be a small, quick trial beforehand where a few certain people will be there to speak on your behalf," the Sand-nin replied, not fazed by Sasuke's lack of emotion in the least.

Sasuke looked at the pair with scrutinizing eyes, "Why should I trust anyone besides myself to speak on my behalf? It seems a little ridiculous."

"You should be grateful, Uchiha," Tsunade spat, glare still ever-present, "Naruto and Sakura have been working incredibly hard all day to get as many people in support of you joining with our forces as possible. After this is done, you'll owe them your life." She paused. "That is," she turned away and began to exit, "if you have a life to owe after this night is done." And with her final statement, she left the tent, leaving the Uchiha alone with the Kazekage.

"She is right," the quiet man said after a while. "You have much to be thankful for right now. They've pulled together a small, but impressive amount of people to speak on your behalf tonight."

"If she's supposedly on my side," Sasuke said, still watching the doorway that Tsunade had exited out of, "then I'll be dead in no time."

"She hates you," Gaara stated, earning a frustrated sigh from Sasuke. "But that is only due to the fact you have caused the two she holds dearest incredible amounts of pain," he explained. Sasuke looked at him with confused eyes, hardly comprehending what he was saying. "She loves Naruto and Sakura as if they were her own family. And for anyone to cause them any type of harm, it is impossibly difficult to sit by and watch it happen. She will do what she thinks is best for those two."

And Gaara too, turned his body slightly toward the door, preparing an exit of his own.

"You must never underestimate the love a mother has for her children."

And with a few short strides, he took his own exit as well.

It wasn't until almost 4 in the morning when a group of people walked into his tent. Sasuke would be lying if he said he wasn't at least a  _little_  bit anxious about this stupid meeting. And upon the arrival of the various ninja, Sasuke readied himself. In a matter of minutes he'd either lie back down to sleep, or he'd escape by any means necessary.

He'd recognized the Yamanaka man from earlier, as well as Sai and even Hyuuga Neji, who he also hadn't seen since he was a child. An older man with spiky hair and highly noticeable facial scarring, who Sasuke could only assume was Nara Shikamaru's father, stood behind the small collection of ninja. Naruto was there, along with his old sensei, Hatake Kakashi. The older man looked upon his former student with a look of disappointment and sadness. It was Kakashi's gaze alone which almost caused Sasuke to lash out and begin the fight for his life, but when Naruto caught him off guard with a hug, all of Sasuke's thoughts came to an abrupt halt.

"You're all clear, Sasuke," he said as he squeezed the Uchiha tight in his grip. He released him before Sasuke could properly react, and when he did he sported the biggest grin he'd worn in years. The insult that was on the tip of his tongue was only held back by the tears he saw in the corners of Naruto's eyes.

Suddenly he wanted to yell at Naruto. To scream at him and demand to know  _why_. Why couldn't he have let Sasuke leave? Why did he have to pursue him and try time and time again to bring him back to Konoha? Why did he insist on keeping their bond with one another?

Why did he care so damn much?

But instead, Sasuke said nothing. He only listened as Naruto said a few encouraging things and Kakashi gave him some quick and simple instructions and laid down a few rules.

He was to be accompanied by at least two other shinobi at all times unless he was in the presence of one of the Kage, Naruto, Kakashi, or Sakura. Those cases were the exceptions. He was also only allowed weapons during training sessions and he was banned from having any contact with his two missing-nin teammates. Although he'd learned that Suigetsu and Juugo were being held at opposite sides of the base and would not be harmed as long as they gave their own cooperation.

After he absorbed every bit of information he could, and after being trapped in one last hug from Naruto, Sasuke laid back down on his cot in a haze to try and get some sleep that he knew wouldn't come that night.

He was now an official member of the allied shinobi forces. He sighed in relief as he let all the tension seep out of his body. Everything would be over soon. There'd be peace eventually.

He'd be free soon enough.


	5. Chapter 5

Awakening to the loud and abrupt sound of clattering metal was never a sound that Uchiha Sasuke wanted to wake up to. But here he found himself jumping out of bed in the blink of an eye and searching with glaring eyes for the source of the noise.

And sure enough, right before his dresser stood little Katahana, eyes wide like she'd been caught with her fingers in the cookie jar. Although it wasn't a cookie jar she was caught digging through, but Sasuke's drawer full of ninja gear.

On the floor lay a couple of shiruken and in her hand was the knife he'd let her hold in the forest the day before.

"What are you doing?" he asked, glaring tiredly at the child.

"I'm—I'm sorry!" she quickly gathered all the weapons and placed them back in the drawer before closing it slowly and carefully. Then without another look at Sasuke she turned and scurried out of his bedroom.

Looking out the window and at the rising sun, Sasuke ran his hands through his messy hair and yawned.

So much for sleeping in today.

Walking out into the main area after throwing on some clothes, he found the Katahana sitting on the couch, wrapped in the blanket, starting at him worriedly from beneath its covers. Ignoring her he made his way into the kitchen but paused when he took in the sight before him. Empty boxes and containers of food lay strewn about the counters. Crumbs and pieces of dropped food lay in piles on the floor. And a puddle of water—which he'd stumbled upon, literally, in his first few steps into the kitchen—lay at his feet.

Trying to hold his temper as well as his tongue, he slowly backed out of the kitchen and approached the couch. The girl had now covered her face in the blanket completely from sight, shrinking back into the cushions as far as she could go.

"Katahana."

"Yes?" she squeaked, her voice muffled by the fabric.

"You made a mess." He received no reply from the bundle on his couch. "Are you going to clean it up?"

Finally peeking her head out, she nodded fervently, looking up at him with scared, anxious eyes. "I will I will I promise I will! I'm sorry I just got so hungry and I was going to wait until you woke up but you were taking so  _long_  and I'm so sorry I couldn't help myself! Please don't kick me back out on the street! Please," her eyes started to gloss with tears about to be shed, "please I'm sorry!"

Of course, more tears. Closing his eyes he pinched the bridge of his nose and forced himself to count to ten before speaking.

"You're going to clean the kitchen. And we're going to go buy more food to replace all the food that you…" he looked back toward the kitchen, "made a huge mess with. And then I'm going to eat. And you're going to behave."

Showing more of her head from her blanket she nodded in agreement. "Yeah! I'll behave I promise!" Throwing the blanket off completely, she jumped down and eagerly ran toward the kitchen. "I know where all the cleaning stuff is too! I found it when I was exploring," she said knowingly.

Exploring? That's what she called it?

 _Nori,_  Sasuke thought as he felt a headache coming on,  _you better hurry up and get back here._

"You never did tell me how old you are," Katahana pointed out, as the two walked down the street. They were currently making their way toward the far, busier side of town, where the merchants were.

Instead of replying, Sasuke approached a small shop and entered through the door. Katahana followed through, the bells attached to the top of the door ringing as they entered, announcing their arrival. Looking around the little girl took note of the various aisles and shelves full of various clothes.

"Pick out some clothing."

She looked up at him with shocked eyes, "Really?"

"Unless you want to keep wearing that for another couple weeks."

Skipping off in a random direction, she called 'thank you' over her shoulder and disappeared behind rows of clothing. She returned to him not long after, with a small dark blue pair of shorts and an equally small white t-shirt. Holding them up to him, she looked up at him with an apprehensive glance.

"Is that all?" he asked, studying the single set of clothing.

"Should… I get more?" she asked unsure. When he shrugged, she eagerly thrusted the clothing into his arms, and skipped away once more.

The next time she returned, which was a couple minutes later, she held up another shirt in one hand, this one red, and in her other she held a small dark gray jacket. "Is this okay?"

He nodded once as he grabbed the other clothes from her and approached the counter at the end of the store where a young woman stood waiting.

"Hi there!" she said in an overly-enthusiastic voice. "What can I do for ya?" she said, leaning over the counter towards him, looking him up and down.

Instead of replying, Sasuke handed over the tiny garments and said nothing to the woman. As she looked at the clothes and added up his total with her old bulky register, she raised an eyebrow toward him. "You got kids?" she asked. Katahana's head peered around Sasuke, looking up at the woman with curious eyes. "Oh look at you!" she cooed exaggeratedly, leaning down towards the child. "What's your name?"

"Katahana," she mumbled shyly, hiding behind Sasuke once more.

"Aw ain't she cute?" she said, looking back up to Sasuke, "I love kids! So sweet I tell ya," she said, shaking her head as she placed the clothes in a bag and handed it to him. "You should definitely stop by more often here, honey," she said with a wink. Sasuke placed money down on the counter between them before grabbing the bag.

And without saying a single word to the woman, Sasuke turned and left with his purchases, little Katahana following very closely behind. As they exited the shop, Sasuke handed the bag to the child to carry. "These are yours."

"Thank you," she said grabbing it with both hands, grinning up at him brightly. "That lady was weird," she said after they began walking again. "She was talking to you like you were a puppy."

Sasuke couldn't help but smirk at the observation. It was a pretty good comparison—funny really.

"She must really like dogs a lot," she child pondered as she followed Sasuke farther down the streets. "But I think she should save the puppy talk for the puppies," she giggled, "she sounded kind of silly."

Katahana talked to herself mostly for the rest of the afternoon, as they went from shop to shop, picking up food and various supplies. Sasuke found himself quite unbothered by her constant babbling, to his surprise. Even with his complete lack of response she still kept herself occupied with their surroundings and with whatever direction her train of thought seemed to travel in. He was paying attention though, waiting to see if she'd slip up and talk about who she was, or where she was from, or even what she was running from.

But even as they arrived back at his apartment, he'd been presented with no new information on the girl.

Later on, as the sun set and Sasuke sat once more at his small table, Katahana directly across from him, he remained quiet, only listening to what the child had to say at the moment. He'd be lying if he said he didn't find the child's company at least a tiny bit nice. It had been years since he'd had any sort of companion he'd travelled or done things with. Even with Nori, he never really  _did things_  with her. Hell, he rarely ever saw her except for when he was going up to his apartment or leaving it.

Being Monday currently, she'd return the following day from her weekend travelling, either late in the morning or just around noon-time. When she arrived back, Sasuke would bring the child down to her and hope that Nori would take over. Yes, it was a little nice to have some companionship, but this child had a place to be, and a family to return to.

"You don't like to talk do you?" she asked him, picking up a noodle off her plate with her fingers and dropping it into her open mouth. "Why's that?"

"It's not necessary," he said curtly.

"Can I ask you some things?" she asked, her legs swinging back and forth from where she sat on her chair.

"That depends on what the questions are."

"How old are you?"

"Twenty-four."

"Really?" she said thoughtfully, "you seem older than that." He ignored her statement. "My Mom is too!" she said proudly. "My birthday is actually two days before hers," she giggled. "She says I'm her best birthday present she's ever gotten!" She paused, and suddenly got quiet.

After a full minute of silence, Sasuke looked over at her, taking note of her face scrunched up in frustration, thinking hard over something. But instead of asking her what was wrong, he waited.

"What day is it?" she asked quietly after a few moments.

"The 26th of July."

"Oh." She said nothing for a long moment, looking at her almost-bare plate uninterestedly. "Okay." She then hopped down off of the chair and brought her plate into the kitchen, dumping the rest of the pasta in the bin before placing the plate by the sink. She then quietly made her way into the living room, where she sat on the couch and pulled the light blanket around herself.

Not knowing how to handle her sudden change in temperament, Sasuke took his time finishing his meal before cleaning up the kitchen and walking into the living room, picking up a new book and taking a seat at the far end of the couch.

They sat in silence for almost an hour, before Sasuke started to grow uncomfortable with the silence. The only time the child was quiet for this long was when she was sleeping. Sighing, he placed the book in his lap and turned to her, "Katahana."

Slowly she lifted her head up off the arm of the couch and looked at him with sad, dark eyes; her waist-long hair falling messily over her shoulders. "Yeah?"

"You're being quiet."

She sat up a little straighter and turned toward him a bit more, but her expression was still dejected. "Thinking about my mother just makes me sad."

"You miss her."

She nodded, her upper lip trembling. Sasuke could see her fighting back tears and waited for a response from the small, shaking child. "I just want her to be okay."

"Why were you travelling to Sunagakure?"

"Gaara-san was offering Mom and I help since we were running out of options."

The name of the Sand-nin immediately heightened Sasuke's curiosity tenfold. " _'Gaara-san_ '?" he asked, studying her face. "I didn't know you were on a first-name basis with the Kazekage."

"I—uh," she buried her face in her hands, "I wasn't supposed to say that," she groaned noisily, pressing her face into the couch cushion beneath her, letting out a muffled shriek of frustration.

"Are you originally from Sunagakure?"

"I really don't think I should say anything else Sasuke-san," she mumbled into the cushion. "I don't want to get into any trouble."

Instead of pressing the child for more information, Sasuke held his tongue and refrained from asking any further questions, instead choosing to read more of his book. But after another hour passed and the child was still being completely silent, he placed his book down once more.

Katahana was currently lying on the couch, facing the wall and staring blankly. Her tiny fingers played with the long strands of her hair, braiding and unbraiding it, over and over again.

Standing up to leave and visit Nori's to feed her feline army, he was struck with an idea. "Katahana," he said toward her, with his hand on his front door. "Come here."

Sitting up she looked at him, letting the blanket, and her hair, fall to the side. "Where are we going?" she asked curiously, as she walked toward him.

And like Sasuke always did, he ignored her question and began walking through the door and down the hall. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Katahana pause. "You don't need your shoes," he informed her, walking toward the stairs and beginning his decent. "We aren't leaving the building."

With a confused look, she scurried up to him and followed him closely down the stairs, and when they stopped at a door she'd never seen before, she looked up at him worriedly. "What are we doing?"

Opening the door, Sasuke could immediately hear the mewing of cats and kittens alike. At the sound, Katahana's jaw dropped as he looked around him and into the apartment. "Whose cats are those?"

"Kato Nori's. You'll meet her tomorrow. Until then," he stepped through the door and after a few strides, he was in the center of the kitchen, "you can help me."

"Help you do what?" she said uneasily, walking through the door and closing it slowly behind her with nervous fingers.

Sasuke turned to her, handing her a bag of cat food. Katahana took the bag in her arms, and looked up at him with wide, excited eyes. "I get to feed them?"

He nodded, "But not too much. There are little bowls in every room. All you need to do is fill the red ones with food and the blue ones with water."

"Can I play with them after I'm done?" she asked eagerly, almost squealing in delight when a brown cat rubbed up against her leg, purring.

He shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I'll give you twenty minutes."

"How about a half an hour?" she bargained, her eyes wide and pleading. She jutted out her lower lip in a pathetic pout as she bounced in place.

"Fine. I'll be back then."

"Awesome! Thank you so much Sasuke-san! I'll feed them and behave, trust me!"

With a single nod of acknowledgement, Sasuke made a hasty retreat out of the cat-infested apartment. He figured with Katahana feeding and playing with them—which was, in turn, brightening her mood—and with him simply  _not_  having to be in that apartment, it was a win-win situation.

Making his way down to the shop, he walked out to the street and pulled the trash bin inside. Closing and relocking the door behind him he began to make his way back toward the back of the store when something stopped him in his tracks; literally.

As soon as he found himself unable to move his body, his senses were immediately on high alert. He couldn't even move his head a single inch to either side. He was hopelessly immobile, frozen in place. Activating his sharingan he glared into the darkness waiting for his opponent to show their face. He was only seconds away from activating his mangekyou sharingan so he'd have the amaterasu at his use, when someone's voice stopped him.

"It's been a long time, Sasuke."


	6. Chapter 6

Glaring at the approaching form, Sasuke relaxed slightly, but kept his sharingan activated and ready.

"Is this really necessary, Shikamaru?" he asked bluntly, glaring angrily at the man who now stood before him.

Nara Shikamaru did not smile or ask Sasuke how he was doing, something which the Uchiha had always sort of liked about the man. He didn't bother with pointless pleasantries or verbal nonsense. Although he was annoyed when Shikamaru did not release his jutsu or allow Sasuke to have control of his body once more.

He'd never been caught in this jutsu, but it was just as frustrating as he'd imagined it to be. He was completely helpless in this position, giving him an anxious, almost panicked feeling.

"Sorry," Shikamaru said unapologetically. "It's just a precaution."

"Who's with you?" Sasuke asked, eyes trying to search the room as best as he could with the limited field of vision he now had.

"I'm alone, don't worry."

"Then what do you want?"

"I'm only here to talk."

"I'm not big on talking," Sasuke said, deactivating his sharingan and narrowing his eyes.

"I have a few questions, and then I'll be gone. Trust me."

"I'm not answering a damn thing unless you let go of me, Nara."

Shikamaru shrugged, "Fine." Releasing his jutsu he shoved his hands into his pockets and stared at Sasuke, as if studying him.

Finally regaining control over his body, Sasuke straightened himself up and folded his arms across his chest. He hadn't been contacted by anyone from Konoha since he was 20. It had been years since he'd seen a single familiar face from his ninja days, and to see an old comrade after so long was intensely strange to him.

"Now, what do you want?"

"A few of my teammates and I are currently on a mission."

"And this mission has to do with me?" he narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

Shikamaru shook his head, "Not exactly. We're just looking for someone." Sasuke replied with a raised eyebrow and a curious look. "When's the last time you saw Sakura?"

The question hit him like a kunai to the chest. He hadn't heard that name spoken in what felt like a lifetime. Thinking back he grew quiet, almost forgetting the presence of the Leaf-nin before him.

"Well?"

Sasuke lifted his head and made eye contact with him, "I haven't seen her since the end of the war. It's been over 8 years."

Shikamaru studied Sasuke for another moment, possibly trying to decipher whether or not he was speaking the truth, but after a couple minutes he nodded once. "I figured as much."

"Then why did you ask?"

"I'm trying to cover all my bases here," he explained. "She's been missing for about a month now. She was travelling between countries on a classified mission when she was ambushed. She hasn't reported in at any of our checkpoints in over three weeks."

"What was her mission?"

"I'm not under any circumstances to discuss that with you," he said lazily, cracking his neck. "All I can let you know is that she was carrying precious cargo; something that cannot, under  _any_  circumstances, fall into the wrong hands. But it doesn't really matter now. What matters is that she's M.I.A. and it's extremely important that we locate her immediately."

"So what? Are you asking for my help?"

Shikamaru let out a short laugh, "No. Like I said, I'm just covering all my bases, I'm trying to get myself and my team around to as many small villages as possible. We're trying to collect information at the moment. And I figured I'd try paying you a little visit. Y'know, see if you'd seen her by any chance."

"If you think I killed her then you can go ahead and just leave," Sasuke said with his eyes narrowed. He didn't want to hear anything else his ex-comrade had to say. He began walking towards the back of the store, passing Shikamaru as he walked toward the staircase.

"I told you that's not why I'm here," he raised his voice impatiently, causing Sasuke to halt his motions. "We're getting pretty desperate at this point. The Hokage is making this mission a priority. Locating her— _alive_ —is of the utmost importance at the moment," Shikamaru said, growing annoyed by Sasuke's attitude. "I just wanted to tell you that if you happen  _by any chance_  to see her, you need to alert us immediately by any way you can."

Turning towards the Nara, he nodded once. "How did you find me?" he asked, his curiosity finally making an appearance.

"It took a while." Shikamaru shrugged. "To be honest I was just running out of places to look."

"Hm." Sasuke nodded. "So where are you off to now?"

The man sighed, "I don't know. Whichever obscure village I happen to stumble across next."

Sasuke nodded one last time before turning around and walking again towards the staircase. "Send my regards to the Hokage," he called over his shoulder sarcastically.

Shikamaru let out a light laugh. "I'll tell Naruto you said 'hi'."

Reaching the stairway he turned once more and gave his old friend one last serious look. "Shikamaru. Good luck." And with a final nod in reply, he turned and made his way up the stairs

Unsettled by the sudden appearance of an old friend from his Konoha days, instead of immediately returning to his apartment, Sasuke grabbed Katahana from Nori's apartment, despite her cries that she still had ten more minutes to spend with the cats, and from there went to his apartment, closing and locking the door behind him. Katahana had quickly gotten over her abrupt departure from the feline-frenzied apartment and was now going on about how much she liked cats.

"There's this little brown one who's so little but  _so_  cute! I don't know if he's a kitten though or just a small adult-cat. But the funny thing is that one of his paws is orange!" she continued to rave about her new animal friend as Sasuke only half-listened. "When I meet Nori I want to ask her what his name is!"

Sasuke made himself comfortable standing by his window, looking out into the night, and at the moon shining dimly in the distance. Past the miles and miles of trees, was an entire squad of ninja with their single mission to find his old teammate.

Leaning his head against the window he let out a breath of air, watching as the heat of his breath fogged up the window. He closed his eyes, tuning out the child's continuous chatter, and allowed himself to think of times he wouldn't usually allow his mind to wander to.

* * *

The food they served on the base was in no way at all anything that Sasuke would've paid for if he'd received it at any restaurant or store, but it was free, and it was all there was to eat, so he kept his complaints to himself. For the most part.

Besides, there were plenty of other things he could've complained about. Mainly his complete lack of privacy he'd been immediately encountered upon official entry into the allied forces. Currently two shinobi, whose names he hadn't cared to learn, sat on either side of him as Sasuke ate his lunch.

He thought it was ridiculous that he was to be monitored around the clock by ninjas who wouldn't even be able to fight him off even if he  _were_  to try and kill them. And so far during his stay he hadn't even been tempted to. So as far as he was concerned, this precaution was unnecessary and only another added annoyance to his regular schedule.

And so far, there had been an overabundance of annoyances.

It was day five of his training with his former Team 7 teammates and as far as his actual training was concerned, things were actually not going bad. He'd found that Naruto had been right; it hadn't been long before they'd begun to pick up on each other's techniques and become readjusted to each other's fighting styles and manners of attack.

He actually found that he preferred working himself to the point of exhaustion on the nearby training grounds much more than he did lying in his tent on his cot. Although being with his two team members did not give him any opportunity for rest—or for any privacy either—he preferred it immensely compared to being followed by two random ninja.

So when Sakura joined him at the table he was currently sitting at, he was relieved when she smiled at the two ninja and they, in turn, nodded toward her and left. Sasuke almost wanted to thank her for ridding them from her side, but knew that it wouldn't benefit him in the least.

Out of all the ninja of Konoha he's encountered here at the base, Sakura was the only one who refused to speak to him about anything other than training. No pleasantries, no small-talk, and no pointless attempts at conversation.

Normally, Sasuke would be more than pleased with that situation, but since it was  _Sakura_  acting like this toward him, it made him feel a bit uncomfortable. She seemed strangely distant from him, which was a far cry from the constant attention and conversation she used to try and engage him in.

"Instead of meeting twice tomorrow for training, since Naruto is travelling with Kakashi-sensei for the next few days, we'll only be meeting in the mornings for training, not in the evenings."

"So we're cutting down on our training?" he raised an eyebrow. "At this point that seems a little counter-productive."

Sakura shot him an annoyed glance, "Well since Naruto won't be here, we won't be able to go over half the techniques anyways, so there's really no use in wasting our evenings. Besides," she crossed her arms and lifted her head, "I have other duties to attend to besides training with you two, and with Tsunade and most of the other Kage gone back to their villages for the moment, I'm in charge of a few things around here."

"So what am I supposed to do?" he asked flatly. "Just sit around and be followed by these worthless ninja all day?"

"Don't be an ass," Sakura glared. "And if you're looking for something to do, I can put you to work instead."

Sasuke did not reply. Instead he met her glare with one of his own as he weighed the pros and cons of staying by her side outside of the training grounds. Glancing around her, and at the two ninja who'd been assigned to him for the day—who were currently eating their own meals, taking a break from monitoring him—he repressed a sigh and nodded.

"Alright, fine." He scowled. "Anything to stop being followed around."

"Good. Then after lunch tomorrow I'll stop by your tent." Sakura stood, bringing her tray of food with her. "I have quite a bit of work you can help me with," she said with a mischievous grin.

As she walked away, and as the two ninja took note of her departure and rejoined him at his table, he wanted to regret his decision, but after looking at the two lazy ninja sitting on his sides, he realized that he had less of a chance of going insane following Sakura around then he would being followed against his will.

Although of course, he knew that even the lesser of two evils was still pretty damn evil.


	7. Chapter 7

"Sasuke-san?"

Sasuke was abruptly pulled out of his thoughts by the little girl by his side, looking up at him with a worried look on her face. "Is everything okay?" she asked in a small voice.

Looking at her and then back out the window, he nodded once.

"But you've been standing there for almost an hour."

"Everything is alright, Katahana." Looking at the clock on the far wall, he noted how late it was. "Why don't you try and get some sleep?"

"Okay," she said uneasily before walking over to the couch and picking up the blanket, after settling herself she looked over at Sasuke. "Are you going to go to sleep too?" she asked.

Sasuke walked across the room and flipped the light switch, allowing the room to become enveloped in darkness. The only light now shining dimly through the window. "I will later. Go to sleep."

The child was asleep within minutes. Sasuke looked at her tiny form from where he stood by the window; the even rise and fall of her chest, her hands no longer gripping the blanket, but instead laying before her, palms slightly opened.

In record time this night had turned from a relatively quiet and enjoyable night into a stressful situation where Sasuke was being forced to think about his past. Before he'd run off to live in solitude, he'd somehow managed to convince himself that in due time he'd forget all about Konoha and those he knew from the days where'd he'd lived there as a citizen. But now he knew that he would never be rid of the memories he held and the bonds he'd created, and he'd never be free of those he was once close with.

Sitting down on the floor, leaning his back against the wall with the window on his left, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes, willing himself to regain control over his thoughts and emotions. Sighing, he stood and shook his head, as if he'd be able to shake his old teammate from his thoughts. Upon entrance into his room, he allowed himself to collapse on his bed, exhausted in more than one way.

* * *

He didn't know when he'd fallen asleep, but the piercing scream of the child who inhabited the couch just one room over immediately roused him from his sleep. Throwing his door open, he stood in shock for a split-second as he took note of the two dark figures in his apartment.

Katahana was in the corner of the room, her blanket held in front of her as if to provide her with protection, and her face contorted in a terrifying look, eyes wide and mouth open wide as the screaming poured out.

At the sound of his door slamming open, the two figures turned toward him, reflexively searching for the source of the noise. Before they could even form words through their shocked expressions, Sasuke had already shot at them.

He first lunged toward the person who stood closest to Katahana, grabbing him by the upper arm with one hand, and using his other to grab the man's opposing arm and twist it behind his back. Not even a second had passed and the first intruder already lay on his back letting out a pain-filled groan due to the excruciating feeling of his arm being snapped in two places. Turning to the man's partner, Sasuke glared with red eyes at him before kicking the first man towards him.

"You—you're an Uchiha!" The second man said, pointing a shaky finger up at Sasuke, the sight of the sharingan immobilizing him with fear.

He didn't even see it coming when Sasuke shot forward and grabbed him by the throat, pinning him against the far wall. Katahana's screams had now transformed into hysterical sobs, urging on Sasuke's fury that much more.

"Who are you?" he demanded. When the man merely flinched back Sasuke tightened his grip. "Tell me before I snap your neck."

"I'm—We're no one," he choked out in a raspy voice. "We were hired to get her," he gasped, trying to take in as much air as he could, "We weren't going to harm her!" Sasuke growled, pulling the man back and slamming him back against the wall, the entire room shaking in result. "Honest!" he said, pleadingly. "If we were to harm her, we'd be killed," he began gasping more desperately, clawing helplessly at Sasuke's grip.

"He's telling the truth," the first main managed to groan out as he rolled onto his chest, his arm laying crookedly on the floor at his side. "We—we didn't even know another was still alive—"

Glass shattering caused Sasuke to throw the man to the ground and turn toward the now-smashed window. Standing on the windowsill and leaning into the room was a man clad in black with a dark green mask covering all except his eyes.

Terrified, Katahana let out another cry, trying desperately to back as far away from the newest intruder as possible, who now stood only feet from her.

Sasuke glared at the masked man, and shot a quick glance toward Katahana. He needed to get to her as quickly as possible, before this man did. As quickly as he was able to, he was suddenly in between the two, managing to cover the distance in a blink of an eye. Katahana screamed once more, reaching out for Sasuke as he appeared standing directly in front of her, shielding her with his body.

But when Sasuke saw the man pull out a handful of senbon, he was shocked when his attacks were directed toward the first two intruders. After landing all of the needles in vital points, the two men lay completely limp on the floor of Sasuke's apartment; their groans and their desperate moves to get away, suddenly halted for good.

The man then turned toward Sasuke, meeting his eyes for a quick second. Then, as soon as he'd appeared, he'd disappeared just as quickly.

Sasuke could've sworn he'd seen the man smile in delight behind his mask the way his eyes crinkled and his cheeks lifted. Out of habit he made a move to immediately follow the man, but as Katahana began screaming once more, he stopped abruptly, and turned his attention towards her once more.

"Please don't go!" she begged, her arms stretched out toward him, her eyes filled with tears, her cheeks stained with them. "Please don't leave me!"

Stepping towards her slowly, he tentatively held out an arm, which she eagerly grabbed hold of and used to help her on her feet. Once standing she dove into his chest, clinging to him with tiny fists and crying into his shirt. Out of something that seemed much like an instinct, Sasuke slowly wrapped his arms around the girl, lifting her up with him as he straightened himself once more. His sharingan deactivated once more.

Cautiously, he walked back over toward the window, looking out into the cool, dark night. Everything was silent and still, making everything appear to be that much more eerie. Katahana held on to him desperately, still sobbing against him. Upon seeing no further trace of the green-masked man, Sasuke tightened his grip on her, holding her against him, and backed away from the window.

Then, turning, he took note of the two bodies that lay limply on the floor of his apartment. He strode briskly into his bedroom, leaving the scene behind him, and leaned down over his bed, trying to place the child on it.

"No!" She screeched, only holding onto him tighter. "Please don't leave me here!"

"Katahana," he said in a low voice, "I'm going to put you down but I'm not going to leave you, alright?" She shook her head against his chest, her grip not loosening. "I promise."

"More are going to come," she cried, lifting her head up and looking at him with puffy eyes, "and they're just going to keep trying to get me. I don't want them to take me!" She wailed loudly, her tears never ceasing their decent down her round, flushed cheeks.

The cries of the child in his arms filling his ears he turned toward the doorway, noting the shattered glass and the one body he could still see from his room. These ninja had entered his home, broken his property, and managed to turn a bubbly 7-year old girl into a hysterical wreck.

He hadn't wanted to get involved in this child's dilemma, but now, he was as involved as she was. Her situation hadn't been any of his business before, but now, he needed to know what he'd be going up against.

"Katahana, I promise that I will protect you," he vowed, lowering his head to speak to her, hoping for her to lift her own so she'd look him in the eye. "But if I'm going to help you, you need to answer some of my questions."

Still crying, although much less severe than before, Katahana nodded and slowly—as well as reluctantly—released her grip on Sasuke. He set her down on the bed and let her cover herself in some of his blankets.

"Now I'm going to be right back," he said standing up. Before she could cry out to him and beg him to stay he held up a hand, silencing her. "I'll be in the other room for one minute. Max. You can even count to 60 if you'd like to."

"Just one minute?" she asked, her voice still shaky.

"You can start counting now," he said as he turned and walked back out into the main area.

And in under 60 seconds he'd managed to cover the bodies up and move them behind the couch, where they'd remain until he'd find the adequate time to dispose of their bodies. Also, he'd grabbed a few containers of food, walking back into his bedroom just as Katahana was finishing her countdown.

Digging through his closet next, he pulled out a dark bag and began filling it. He placed the food at the bottom, as well as a small amount of clothing. Then, walking toward his dresser he opened it and began emptying it of its contents.

His old ninja gear spilled out on the floor in front of him, weapons clattering against one another. Picking them up quickly he neatly placed most of them in the bag, and a few of him he kept strapped to his own body, so he'd be able to draw them when he needed to.

"What are you doing?" the child asked, finally appearing to have calmed down enough to form coherent thoughts.

"We have to leave."

"But, where are we going to go?"

"Don't worry about that. You let me handle that, alright?"

"But I need to find my mom, I can't just go wandering away somewhere—"

"I'll help you find her."

Her eyes widened, "You… will?"

"I told you I'd protect you. Do you believe me?" She did not hesitate when she nodded multiple times, never once looking away from him, granting him her full attention. "Katahana, I  _need_  you to start answering my questions. I know you said that you're not allowed to. But if I don't know what I'm protecting you from, and if I don't know where to take you to keep you safe, then it's going to be a lot more difficult for me to protect you. Do you understand?"

She did not reply for a moment, but eventually nodded her head once confirming that she understood.

"Good. Now first, after we get completely ready, we leave at sunrise."

Nodding again, she wiped the rest of her tears from her face and scooted closer to him so that she was sitting on the edge of the bed facing him. Sasuke quickly finished packing what little supplies he knew to take when travelling unknown distances, and after leaving the room once more and returning with Katahana's small pack, he placed it beside his own and closed the door to the bedroom.

"Now," Sasuke began as he sat beside her on the bed, "Where are you from?"

"I'm from Konoha," she spoke quietly, her hands gripping the blanket beneath her tightly.

His eyes widened, looking at the girl, stunned. "Who is after you?"

"Mom didn't tell me much. My uncle said it was because she didn't want me to worry. But he always said she worried about things too much on her own anyways, so telling me wouldn't change anything. But there's someone who wants me because apparently I have something that people want."

"What do you have?"

"I don't even know!" she said frustrated, slamming her hands down on the bed on either side of her. "No one would tell me but they would insist that I was special and needed to be protected from this one bad guy. He has a whole bunch of people that work for him and whoever gets me will get  _a lot_  of money. So a lot of people keep trying."

"When did this all first start happening?"

"The first time someone tried taking me was about six months ago. No one had ever done it before but all of a sudden everyone wanted to steal me away from my mother and Konoha." Her eyes began to water again but she blinked the tears away and tried to maintain a tough look. "They kept attacking the village so we left on April 8th and we've been travelling ever since."

"If we were to go to Konoha, would you stay there?"

Katahana's tiny eyes widened as she turned to look at him, "Not unless Mom was there with me, safe!" She said urgently, "I can't go home without her!"

Sasuke did not reply to her outburst. Returning to the Hidden Leaf was the only way to help ensure her safety. And even if they were to only stay for a little while, at least he'd be able to get more information on who is after her and why.

"Try and get some sleep," he said quietly, "the sun will rise in a few hours and we'll be travelling all day tomorrow. You'll need your rest."

"We're not going back to Konoha are we?"

"We're going where you'll be safe," he responded. Katahana frowned but pulled Sasuke's blankets tighter around her and curled up in a ball in the center of the bed.

Exiting the room, he closed the door behind him and looked at the bodies hidden partially at the back of the room. Now would be a perfect opportunity to dispose of the bodies in one of the surrounding forests nearby. But, not knowing whether or not any ninja waited in the dark for the first opportunity to strike and take Katahana, he decided that it would have to wait. He'd get them out of here eventually.

While he waited for the sun's arrival, he tidied up a little bit more, cleaning up any remaining pieces of glass off the floor. As the first sign of the sky lightening reached his eyes, Sasuke knew that it was finally time.

After over 10 years of being absent, Uchiha Sasuke would finally return to the Hidden Leaf.


	8. Chapter 8

The sun had hardly begun to shine when Sasuke and Katahana were already awake and ready to travel. The child had her new jacket zipped up, with her backpack packed and on tightly. Sasuke insisted she have ready access to some of her weapons, so strapped to her left thigh was a new pocket that held a kunai and a couple shiruken. Sasuke threw on a dark cloak, lifting its hood so his features were obscured, and strapping his own bag to his back.

"How long can you run for?"

"Uh, a pretty long time I think? Mom and I once crossed the gap between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightening in only a day," she said proudly. "I'm not too fast, but I can run for a while!"

"Have you had any training at all?"

"A little bit. My uncle trains me when I stay over his house, so I know how to use my kunai pretty well."

"You must follow my lead and stay as close to me as possible, if you need to stop for any reason, alert me immediately. Understood?" She shook her head in confirmation. "We can make it in two days if we only stop to eat twice and to sleep once."

"Okay," Katahana said nervously, gripping the straps of her bag tightly.

"Remember what I said." He gave her a pointed look, trying to remind her that he would protect her. It was the mission he'd given himself. And he would not fail.

Making their way down the stairs and out the front door of the shop quickly, they took off immediately for the forest to the East of them.

Next stop. Konoha.

* * *

Barely managing to move out of the way of his kunai, Sakura let out a frustrated grunt as she landed on all fours on the dirty ground below her.

"Damnit Sasuke! I swear sometimes I think you're trying to kill me for real," she threw him a glare, staring up at him through her messy bangs. He shrugged, spinning a pair of shuriken on two of his fingers, smirking to himself.

"The more realistic the setting and the circumstances are, then the more effective the training is."

"Yeah, well I'd rather not have to use all my chakra healing my own damn stab wounds instead of using it to train."

"It's not my fault you're slow."

"Yeah but it'll be your fault when I have to explain to Tsunade why I was too chakra depleted to do any of my side work this week."

"I still don't see how that's my problem."

"It's your problem,  _because_  it's my problem," she said dusting off her clothes and quickly healing her bleeding, scraped legs. "If I get in trouble, don't think you'll get off too easy."

It was their fourth day of training together, with only the two of them. Sasuke had thought that maybe Sakura would warm up to him again and start acting more like the old kunoichi he'd remembered from his childhood. But as the days went on and the training sessions grew more intense, the likelihood of that happening decreased more and more.

Her personality was a bit more abrasive, her wit was quicker, and he had to admit—she was a hell of a lot stronger. Overall, she was much more difficult to handle than her previous self.

"I'm done for the day," she said frustrated, as she walked past Sasuke and over to her bag. Taking a bottle of water out of it and slinging the bag on her shoulder, out of habit, she waited for Sasuke to follow. And as he fell in step beside her they made their way back to the base in a short amount of time, each of them arguing and making rude remarks to the other the entire way.

"Using the mangekyou is a  _terrible_  idea," she said, almost shocked that he'd propose to train with it in the first place.

"It's effective and it's powerful."

"And it's way too dangerous to use in a training session. No."

"Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do with my sharingan?" he asked sharply, turning to glare at her.

"I've done my research Sasuke," she said, countering his frustration with some of her own. "I know that the more you use it, the worse your vision gets. And if you go blind before we step foot on the battlefield, then what good will that do us?"

"Don't act as if you know everything, Sakura," he said in a low voice. "My vision is fine. I could use the mangekyou everyday for the next month and my vision would not be negatively affected."

"The last time we saw each other, back when you killed Danzo," Sasuke remained motionless as she spoke of the memory, "your sight was already wavering." She said knowingly, not speaking of the  _other_ event that'd happened on that day.

They'd now made it back to the base and were currently heading towards the main medical tent, where Sakura did most of her work. "These eyes are not entirely my own," he admitted quietly, after a couple minutes of silence.

"I'm not sure I'm following," Sakura said, looking at him nervously.

He did not speak again until they were in the corner of the Medic tent where Sakura's makeshift desk was located. She sat behind the desk and he pulled up a nearby crate and leaned back against it, sitting on the floor. "After that day, I had Itachi's eyes implanted."

Sakura dropped the file she'd just picked up, spilling its content all over the floor, papers falling everywhere. Trying to mask her shock, she leaned down and began collecting them once more. Sasuke leaned forward as well, assisting her. As she stood once more, he handed her the stack of papers he collected wordlessly, making eye contact with her as she thanked him quietly.

"My vision doesn't get affected by  _any_  of the visual jutsu I perform with my sharingan. My vision is in no danger," he explained to her quietly. " _Eternal_  mangekyou sharingan. That's what it's called."

Sakura hadn't heard Sasuke mention anything concerning his older brother since his death. And now that he'd brought him up on his own, Sakura looked bewildered.

Sasuke watched as her expression changed from confusion, to worry, and then ultimately, to sadness. "I heard a little bit about what happened from Naruto," she said quietly.

Sasuke didn't want to hear anything she had to say, and shot her a warning look. He'd storm out, accompanied by ninja or not, he didn't care. But he was not about to listen to another person try and pity him. His brother was dead, and that was that.

"About the truth," she clarified. "About Itachi."

Sasuke was taken aback, not realizing that there were people out there that  _knew_. That knew about the injustices and the cruelties that the Uchiha had suffered, and who knew that his brother was not who everyone thought he was. He'd known that Naruto had been aware; hell, the blonde ninja had told him himself.

"I'll admit," she said, looking at him with embarrassment, "I don't know much. Only that it was an order. And that he was only carrying out his mission."

Sasuke stared back at her, an indescribable look on his face. "Do you know why I wasn't killed," he asked. She didn't reply and he didn't expect her to. "The reason I wasn't killed wasn't for him to test his strength against me," he said in a quiet mono-tone, "He spared me because he loved me too much." Sasuke showed no emotion in his gaze as he spoke, only taking note of Sakura's reaction.

Her eyes widened and her hand lifted to cover her mouth, to suppress a gasp maybe?

"He was dying anyway." Sasuke continued, not even needing the provocation to. "But he stayed alive long enough to fight me, long enough for him to die at my feet, leading me to believe that'd I'd finally killed him." He paused for a few minutes, turning his gaze away from Sakura and toward the wide entrance of the large tent. People walked by the door and in and out, all of them carrying on with their day. "He wanted me to be able to kill him and become a hero to the village, for killing the dangerous murderer of the Uchiha," he said caustically.

"The one thing he worked for in the last eight years of his life, was keeping me safe in the village and completely free from harm." He looked back at her, meeting her eyes again. "Too bad it didn't work."

Sakura said nothing, seemingly shocked at his revelation to her. Sasuke was also quiet for a few minutes, before smirking and holding out his hand. "Now go on and tell me what I'm helping to organize today," he said, his voice and attitude back to normal.

Pointing to a faded cardboard box to the right of her desk, she slid it towards him with her foot. "They're patient slips," she spoke, her voice far away, "they need to be color-coded and then put in alphabetical order."

He nodded, removing the top of the box and getting straight to work. He could not help but take notice of the way she continued to watch him, even after he'd ended the conversation and broken their eye contact. Her eyes followed his every movement.

"Thank you," she said as he began to flip through the various pink, yellow, and white sheets of paper. He looked up at her, nodded, and upon noting her quiet look of understanding, he gave her a small half-smile, before resuming his work.

He knew she wasn't thanking him for helping her with her side work.

* * *

It was just nearing noon when Katahana began to tire first. The sun was almost at its highest point in the sky, and the summer heat mercilessly rained down upon them. The shade provided by the trees they traveled under helped, but only by a slight margin.

"Sasuke," the child called, her small legs beginning to wobble as she ran behind him. Sasuke had been uneasy at travelling at such a slow pace, but the speed they'd been carrying for almost seven hours now was beginning to take its toll on the child. "Can we take a break?" she said breathlessly.

Peering over his shoulder at her reddened face and breathlessness, he stopped abruptly and nodded to her. As soon as her feet halted, Katahana let herself fall onto her backside, trying to catch her breath. Sasuke set his pack down, retrieving a container of water, quenching his own thirst before passing it down to the child who snatched it with greedy fingers.

"Don't drink it too fast," Sasuke scolded, "It'll only slow you down once we start again."

"And when will that be?"

Sasuke paused and thought for a few seconds, "We'll take this time to eat and get a little bit of food, and then we leave again in twenty minutes."

The child frowned but nodded, lifting up the canteen and taking smaller, shorter sips.

Leaning his back against the thick trunk of a nearby tree, Sasuke turned his attention toward the direction the 7-year-old who currently sat where she'd stopped, biting into a small roll. Lifting her head and noting how he observed her, she smiled. "Aren't you going to eat anything?"

"Later."

"You're kind of strange," she said, cocking her head to the side as she looked at him. "You don't really talk a lot," she observed. "You remind me a little bit of one of Mom's friends! He's quiet too, but he's weirder than you are," she giggled. "Mom tells me that it's because of things that happened when he was a kid, and that's why he doesn't think before speaking."

She giggled to herself again as she took another bite of her roll. "That why I like him though. He's kind of silly!" she looked at him again, "You're not silly though. Just quiet and stuff. But that's okay, I like you a lot Sasuke-san!" She smiled brightly at him before finishing her small meal and taking a few more sips of water.

"Have you lived in Konoha all your life?" he asked after a few silent minutes. Katahana was now much closer to him, leaning against the tree to his left and picking small pebbles out from the bottom of her sandals.

"Mhm! Konoha is great I love it so much! I really miss it," she said, frowning slightly. "I just want to find my mother and return." Staring at his face, she smiled again, "Have you ever been there?" He nodded. "My favorite part of the  _whole entire village_  is the Hokage faces in the mountain," she said giggling to herself, throwing her arms out wide as if representing their massive size. "Especially since Uncle Naruto looks so silly!"

Sasuke found himself frozen at the child's words, staring at her as she continued to talk animatedly.

"It doesn't even look like him that much, he's not even smiling! Naruto-san is  _always_ smiling. I tell Mom that I think the rock-face guy did a bad job, but she always tells me that he's supposed to look serious or professional or something like that." She folded her arms, a childish grimace etched in her features.

"So you're on a first-name basis with the Kazakage  _and_  the Hokage?" he asked, still surprised at how she spoke of his ex-teammate-turned-Hokage in such a casual manner.

She nodded as she smiled, "They're friends of my mother! I get to see Naruto-san all the time but I only ever get to see Gaara-san a couple times a year. He's quiet and a little weird like you too!" She talked, stretching her legs out before her, wriggling her toes. She then lifted her arms above her head as she stretched and began to put her shoes back on.

No wonder people were after this child. She must have been the child of someone who was important to not only the Hidden Leaf but also the Sand as well. Shaking his head, trying to focus on more important things—like getting to Konoha as quickly as possible—he stood and looked down at Katahana.

"Ready?"

She nodded and grinned, picking up her small backpack and waiting for him to take the lead.

They two continued onward, without a stop, up until the sun began to set in the early evening. They'd be just outside the borders of the Land of Fire by the time darkness overtook the forest.

Stopping, Sasuke signaled behind him for Katahana to do so as well. "Let's break for a little while. Ten minutes."

He could see her almost begin to protest, as she had been gradually picking up speed as they travelled, something she was excited about, but instead she nodded and held her hands up to him. Wordlessly, he set his pack down, handed her the water, and strode a few yards deeper into the forest, eyes searching ahead of him cautiously.

He had a bad feeling in his chest. They were only a couple miles away from the Land of Fire's outer border, and rapidly approaching the Leaf Village as the day carried on. But instead of feeling relieved, he knew that things would go downhill soon.

Backing up toward Katahana until he was standing beside her, he reached down and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her to her feet. The child, about to ask what he was doing, looked to his face only to see him holding his index finger in front of his mouth, silently asking for her to stay quiet as well. And with wide eyes, she straightened at his side, one hand gripping a strap of her bag, the other, clinging to Sasuke's cloak.

At the sound of something sharp whistling through the air, Sasuke quickly deflected a kunai with one of his very own. The opposing knife lodged itself deep into the tree to their side. Katahana gasped, clinging to him fearfully.

There was a couple seconds where the forest grew silent once more, until suddenly shuriken were thrown at them from all directions. Moving quickly, Sasuke made easy work of deflecting each and every weapon that shot toward them. The girl let out a small cry at the loud ' _clinking'_  noises that surrounded her.

Three ninja dressed in dark gray fell from the trees, now standing at eye level with the duo. "Give us the child, and we won't kill you," a female voice spoke demandingly.

"Leave now," Sasuke said in a low, quiet voice. "This is your only warning."

Grinning, the kunoichi, who appeared to be leading the trio, took a few slow steps toward them, drawing twin blades from behind her back and taking an offensive position. "You must be an idiot." She shot toward them faster than Katahana could follow with her eyes.

There were the sounds of metal hitting against metal, and suddenly a body fell to the ground with a dull thud. The ninja fell at Sasuke's feet before them, throat slit, eyes wide and staring. Out of anger at seeing his fallen comrade, another ninja attacked, approaching with heavy steps.

Taking one small step, Sasuke made a quick series of hand signs and before the enemy could react he was engulfed in a giant ball of fire. His screams reverberated through the trees as he fell to his knees, clawing at the flames that ate away at his clothes and his skin.

Turning to the last ninja, eyes now piercing and red, he did not attack. "Leave now."

"Sh—sharingan—" the man gasped at the sight. "It can't be!"

"Leave and tell the others to stay away as well," he spoke in a dark, intimidating voice, "or your fate will be worse than theirs."

"There's more?" the man asked himself, as if in shock at the sight of Sasuke's eyes. "I—I need to…" his panicked words trailed away as he turned and quickly ran back into the forest.

Sasuke watched the ninja retreat and refused to take his eyes off his retreating form until he could find no sign on him. Walking back toward Katahana, he kneeled down in front of her. She was currently staring at him, her arms shaking as she held a kunai out before her.

Reaching out, he carefully plucked the weapon from her hands and tucked it into her backpack which she still held to tightly. Hands now empty, she grabbed Sasuke's hand, clinging to it with all her might.

He led her farther into the forest—far enough so that she wouldn't see the bodies anymore. She'd seen more people die in the past twenty-four hours than most normal children her age would ever see.

"We won't be able to travel our direct path anymore," Sasuke informed her, "there are too many hunters in these woods."

"What do we do now?" she asked fearfully.

Glancing up toward the ever-darkening sky, Sasuke tried to think of a new course of action. One that wouldn't require him having to kill every person who got in his way in front of a little girl. Watching the birds fly through the tree-tops above him, turning in for the night to sleep and stay warm in their nests, Sasuke got an idea.

Digging through his supplies, he found a small notepad and pen, and began writing rapidly. After a minute, he ripped the sheet off the pad and rolled it up, securing it with a small string. Then, biting into his thumb he made some hand signs, spoke lowly and quickly to himself, and slammed his bloodied palm against the ground.

In a quick puff of smoke a small hawk emerged from out of thin air, perching itself onto Sasuke's outstretched arm. Attaching the rolled up message to the bird's leg, he then lifted his arm and the hawk flew away.

"Who are you sending that to?"

Sasuke simply watched the bird disappear out of his sight and into the darkness.

Shikamaru had said to contact him if he'd seen Sakura—which he hadn't—but he figured that if this girl was important enough to the Leaf Village, and even Naruto himself, than he'd receive  _some_  help getting Katahana back to the village.

"We're taking a different path. Just follow me."

Turning 90 degrees to the left Sasuke took off once more quickly, Katahana staying closely behind him. Instead of heading directly for Konoha, they'd aim a little north. It would take them slightly longer to get there, but if Shikamaru pulled through for him, then there was no doubt in his mind that this would be successful.


	9. Chapter 9

As the birds first began stirring in their nests, Sasuke lifted his head, watching their small, feathered forms take off into the early morning sky. The two sat high in a tree, perched on a thick bough, overlooking a valley in the distance. Sasuke sat with his back to the trunk with one leg stretched out before him and the other hanging lazily over the side. Katahana remained motionless, still buried deep into sleep.

Late last night when they'd settled in the tree for their final stop of the night, Katahana—who was practically dead on her feet and utterly unresponsive to Sasuke—had immediately crawled into his lap. Uneasily shifting her weight so that she lay more comfortably on him, she grabbed a fistful of his cloak, laying her cheek down on his chest, and let out a quiet sigh of contentment.

Awkwardly, Sasuke wrapped an arm around her curled up body, cradling her in a way.

Now, almost four hours later, she still remained unconscious to the world in the ex-missing-nin's arms. Sasuke knew that today would be harder on the child. The sun had only just begun to rise, although the temperatures were already rising at an incredible rate. And with the little amount of sleep the girl had received in the past few days, or weeks, Sasuke knew that she'd reach her limit soon enough.

As smoothly as possible, Sasuke shifted onto his feet, Katahana still held tightly in his arms. Looking out into the distance, he knew that they'd need to move as soon as possible. The sun was rising, so they had no time to waste.

"Sasuke-san?" a sleepy voice asked, peering up at him through half-closed lids. Reaching up, she wrapped her arms around his neck, nuzzling her face underneath his chin. "I'm so sleepy," she mumbled, her eyes falling closed once more.

No, there would be no way that he'd be able to travel with her while she was in this state. But as she kept her tiny arms encompassed around his neck, an idea stuck him.

Deftly moving her so that she released her hold on him for a quick moment, he moved his dark cloak so that it wrapped around her; Katahana's face—now almost completely hidden from sight—pressed against his shirt instead. Her arms had positioned themselves back in place, and only needing to support her weight with one arm, he held her securely and took off through the trees.

He'd travelled for two hours before Katahana began to stir. Without halting, he glanced down at her as she opened her eyes and looked up at him. "Can we stop?" she asked, squinting her eyes at the bright sun shining through the trees.

Halting, he lowered her gently on the wood beneath their feet. The girl stretched her arms above her head, yawning as she did so. "How far are we now?" she asked, rubbing her eye with a small fist.

"It'll be another day at least," he informed her, hand resting on the tree trunk, gazing off into the distance. "Ready?" She nodded, straightening her clothes slightly, before standing by his side.

Taking off, Sasuke was a bit impressed with Katahana's determination. She wasted no time bringing herself up to full speed and holding her stride as they ran. Even after they'd been running for a few hours, she showed no sign of tiring. He was halfway-tempted to ask her if she wanted to rest, but decided against it when he realized that at the speed they were going, they'd make it to their destination before sunrise the next morning.

As they crept closer and closer toward the village, Sasuke's anxiety began to rise. It'd been so long since he'd been in the village—he hadn't shown his face once since he'd left at the age of 13. Knowing that he'd soon be walking through the same gates of Konoha that he'd made his exit through all those years ago, made him nervous.

More than the village itself, the thought of having to speak to so many of his old comrades after his eight-year absence made him feel more uneasy than anything. Undoubtedly there'd be questions;  _lots_ of them. And there would still be the few people with leftover resentment who still considered him an enemy to the Village, even though he'd been acquitted of his charges after the end of the war.

In choosing to team up with the allied shinobi, he'd made a decision that had ultimately saved his life. If he hadn't, he would've undoubtedly been hunted down and executed. Up until the end of the war, he'd had no plans for his future. He wasn't even sure if he'd have one once the fighting were to cease.

* * *

He sat at the far end of the base, at the edge of the forest, sitting in a tree looking out into the distance. The sun had set hours before, and since then the temperature had dropped drastically. The cool air did not bother Sasuke though, in fact he found it oddly refreshing. It kept him on alert.

And like it had been for the past three weeks, standing below at the base of the tree, and sitting high in a neighboring tree, two nameless shinobi were given charge of monitoring him for the night. At this point, Sasuke simply ignored them completely, doing as he wished and not paying them any attention.

Although he couldn't help but notice when the two quickly departed, leaving him still sitting in his spot high in the treetops.

"Hey."

Turning around, Sasuke saw the pink-haired kunoichi jump from another tree towards him. Landing on the thick bough he occupied, she sat beside him, following his gaze out into the forest.

"Looking for something?"

He shook his head. "Just thinking."

"You're always thinking," she said. It wasn't an accusation, just an observation. "Care to share?"

"Thinking about the war."

Sakura let out a short laugh, tilting her head back and letting her hair fall behind her. "Aren't we all?" She placed her hands behind her and leaned back on them for support. "Everyone's saying that we don't have more than a week before things start to get… messy."

"A week huh?" He picked off a small piece of tree bark and let it fall to the ground below him. "That's not much time."

"Yeah," she agreed quietly. As he ran his hands mindlessly along the bark of the tree, Sasuke couldn't help but sense her eyes on him. Turning his head he met her gaze and raised an eyebrow in question. "Aren't you…" she hesitated, "are you scared at all?"

Another piece of bark fell to the ground below, his eyes following it until it disappeared in the grass below. "Not really," he shrugged. "I'm more relieved."

"You do realize that this is a  _war_  we're in right? And that people die in wars. Lots of people." She said, unbelieving of his supposed indifference.

"I'm aware. But I'm just thinking of this as the end of all this madness."

"Madness? War is madness, Sasuke," she said, almost reproachful. "War is terror and hate and death all rolled into one. There is nothing good about war—"

"I'm not saying there is," he countered sharply, shooting her a glare. "I'm just saying that this war marks the end of so many things." He looked away from her, stealing a quick glance over his shoulder and toward the base. From their spot they could view the entirety of the base. People were still working hard, preparing and readying themselves for combat. "After the war, and after Madara is defeated, I'll finally be free."

Sakura paused, studying his face, before nodding in understanding. "You'll be free," she repeated quietly. "Where will you go?" she asked after a couple minutes of silence. "You've said already that you won't return to Konoha. What then?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "I might just travel some. Explore a bit more of the world." He shrugged. "I may not ever find a place where I'll actually settle down at. Odds are I'll just wander from village to village for the rest of my life."

"Will you ever visit?"

He thought hard and after a moment sighed, "No," he shook his head. "Probably not."

"I figured as much," she said, letting out a deep sigh of her own. The cool air evaporated her breath as is escaped her body. "Naruto's still convinced that he'll get you to return."

Sasuke gave her a sad half-smile. "I know."

"I'll have to try and talk about it with him some more," Sakura said. "Try and get him to forget about it finally."

Sasuke nodded. Over the past week and a half, the two had come to something they would both consider as a mutual understanding of one another. They initiated in quiet, private conversations like these almost every night. Finally, they were getting the chance to talk to one another civilly after all these years.

Of course, they avoided topics that were a bit too painful to discuss, much like their encounter in the Land of Iron several months back. But other than that, Sasuke had been uncharacteristically open with her. Talking freely and not turning away her company.

Sakura let out a light laugh, interrupting the silence that had blanketed them. Upon noting Sasuke's quizzical look, she shook her head, a soft smile gracing her lips. "Just thinking about ridiculous memories. You know, missions from our old genin days?" She let out another tinkling laugh. "I remember the look on yours and Naruto's faces the first time we were assigned to catch some woman's cat for her."

Sasuke allowed himself to enjoy the memory as well, smiling slightly and crossing his arms. "That was painful."

"You two were so angry," she laughed.

" _Naruto_  was angry," he corrected, "I was just annoyed beyond belief."

"It was pretty funny though!"

"It's funny to look back on, but at that moment? Miserable."

She laughed again, leaning her head down on his shoulder, tucking her arm within his. The notion caught him off guard, and for a long moment all he could do was stare down at her pink head uneasily. Unsure of what to do he tried his best to relax his body. She'd done this countless times as children. Perhaps being away from her for so long was why it felt so much stranger.

"And that time we tried to get Kakashi-sensei to take off his mask…"

Sasuke couldn't help but let out a light laugh at that one memory. "That day was almost more frustrating than chasing after the cats."

"Have you seen his face at all since?" he asked peering down at her.

"I did once," she said glancing up at him, grinning. "It was about a year ago. He was out eating with Guy-sensei and he was acting completely normal about it, too. When I walked by—gawking at him of course—he just smiled and waved at me like he always did, and then went back to eating."

Sasuke was shocked and his expression did nothing to hide it.

"Jealous?" she laughed, "when I told Naruto he almost threw a fit."

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little envious."

"He's pretty good-looking," she admitted, still-laughing. "I wouldn't be surprised if the mask was originally to ward off any unwanted attention." She elbowed him gently in the ribs, "I'm sure you would've loved having one, huh?"

He groaned, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

She laughed once more, leaning into Sasuke as they stared out into the depths of the forest. Hesitantly, he lowered his head slightly, resting his on top of hers. They remained sitting in a comfortable silence for quite some time, listening to the sounds of bugs chirping and frogs croaking, as well as the constant sounds of voices and movement coming from the base.

This was something Sasuke genuinely enjoyed; comfortable silences and being left alone. And even though he wasn't  _entirely_  alone, he was just as content as he would be if he were by himself.

"It's going to be strange," Sakura said, breaking the silence eventually, "once the war is over." She lifted her head and looked at him. "There's a chance I might not ever see you again."

Sasuke did not reply. He simply held Sakura's gaze for a long moment before nodding once. That had been one of the things he'd been trying to avoid thinking about. Ever since he was a child, Sakura had been consistently there for him, caring for him and about him. She was always there at the end of the day to say something overly-cheerful to him, always smiling at him, and offering him her company.

Of course, he'd never taken her up on the offer as children. But now, as they sat together high off the ground in the dark of night, he realized that he now preferred her company over anyone else's.

He even preferred it over solitude—something he'd never admit to her.

She was one of the only people in his life that was constantly and consistently looking for ways to help him. Even when he'd turned his back on the village, and her, and even through the past year with all the threats he directed toward her, his increased dismissive attitude, and his complete lack of concern or empathy.

He'd always been able to depend on Sakura. She was always there, waiting for him in case he'd need her help. It was only now, at the end of it all, when he accepted it.

And soon enough, none of it would matter. If they even survived this war, he would not stay. He couldn't bring himself to face the village he'd turned his back on all those years ago.

It would never happen.

"I'm going to miss you," Sakura said quietly, "you big pain in the ass."

Sasuke couldn't help but smile, resting his chin on top of her head. He would see her for the last time sometime within the next few weeks, and that would be it. Closing his eyes, and feeling a strange tightness in his chest that he immediately despised, he refused to think about his impending departure.

And for the moment, he decided to pretend that it didn't matter that he'd be leaving.

Lifting his head and pushing her away from him slightly, she gazed at him with confused eyes, the green shining brightly, even in the moonlight. Then suddenly, before he gave it a second thought, he leaned down and crushed his lips against hers.

* * *

They did not stop that day until an hour before sunset, Katahana impressing Sasuke immensely with her determination and will to keep going. As she drank what was left of the water Sasuke had brought with him, she let out a long breath of air. "How much longer?" she asked, still breathless from the constant running.

"I think we'll be at our point within the hour," he informed her as he re-arranged his bag, folding his cloak and shoving it inside. The air was still hot even with the sun beginning to set in the distance.

"And our point is north of the Village right?"

He nodded. "Whenever you're ready, we'll head out again."

Katahana handed him the empty canteen, threw on her shoes once more as well as her backpack, and looked up at him once more. "Ready."

Resisting the urge to grin at the child's eagerness, they set off once more. They were in the final stretch.

Running without putting any thought into his motions, as the sun finally fell behind the trees, Sasuke immediately had activated his sharingan, and was meticulously scanning the areas directly around them for any type of threats.

They were minutes away from their destination when—out of nowhere—a kunai shot toward Sasuke, who'd been facing the other way momentarily, and before he could dodge, landed itself deep in his upper arm.

Grunting, he allowed himself to fall from the treetops to the ground, relieved when he saw Katahana quickly mirror his motions, not more than a couple feet behind him. Grabbing hold of its handle, Sasuke yanked the kunai clean out of his arm, not showing a single sign of pain.

The child though, taking note with wide eyes of the dark red blood immediately beginning to pour out of his injury, flinched, her grip on her kunai shaky.

"Remember to focus, Katahana," he said quietly and quickly, red eyes peeking at her swiftly before turning their direction back towards the forest ahead of them.

"So the rumors are true?" A deep voice spoke from the thick brush of the forest. Slowly, a man with white hair, also dressed in a white cloak, stepped out from behind a tree and took a few steps toward them. "Uchiha Sasuke still lives."

Narrowing his eyes, Sasuke took a defensive position, waiting for the main to make the next move.

"This is such wonderful news," he said with a sickeningly sweet smile, "I had settled for finding the child for a little while, but now that I know you're still alive? Well," he held his arms out wide, almost as if inviting Sasuke for a hug, "You'll do just fine."

"Leave," Sasuke demanded in a cold, hard voice.

"But I've only just arrived," he grinned wickedly, "and I've only just gotten started…"

Suddenly, as if a switch was flipped and a light went out, he disappeared completely out of sight. The sharingan did not detect any movement, for it would've immediately followed it. The man simply… _vanished_.

Sasuke had been knocked violently to the ground before he'd known what had struck him. Immediately springing up, ignoring the blood that was pouring out of a wound on his temple, he turned toward Katahana to see the cloaked man standing beside her. He smiled down at her, reaching out to her, as if to hold her tiny hand.

Sasuke flew towards him and was inches away from striking him in the chest when the man vanished once more. Digging his heels into the ground Sasuke halted himself and quickly side-stepped, placing himself in front of Katahana again.

"You need to get out of here." He spoke to her so quietly and rapidly that she hardly made out the words as he uttered them. "Head back the way we came, but wait until I lunge for him again."

"But—"

"Be ready Katahana," he spoke sharply, glaring with the sharingan. She watched, startled as the patterns in his eyes morphed.

"I'm not going to hurt the child, Sasuke," the man reappeared directly before Sasuke, a reproachful look on his face. "I may even decide to let her keep her eyes."

Sasuke could hear the quick tiny footfalls retreating back into the forest as Katahana listened to his advice and ran. Good, at least he wouldn't have to worry about protecting her as well as himself as he fought.

"Especially since you have the mangekyou," the man's face was lit up with delight, only causing Sasuke to grow more infuriated. "How could I pass us this beautiful opportunity?"

Igniting his arm with chidori and shooting his hand forward at the same instant, Sasuke once more tried striking his assailant. But as the man disappeared yet again, Sasuke growled and spun, looking for him angrily, only to have the man slice Sasuke's forehead with a short blade.

Jumping back, Sasuke couldn't stop the flow of blood from entering his line of sight. Frustrated and acting as quickly as possible, he ripped a strip of his shirt off and quickly wrapped the fabric around his head. But as he regained his stance and stepped forward to approach the man, he was immediately kicked in the back roughly.

Yet again, he'd disappeared and reappeared in an instant.

"I'd really rather this not go on any longer," the voice spoke smoothly, approaching Sasuke's fallen form. "You cannot touch me Sasuke. Just give up."

Sasuke jumped upward, landing in a tree as he glared down at the cloaked man. He was a moment away from using his amaterasu when he heard an ear-piercing scream in the distance.

 _Katahana_.

Completely ignoring his opponent, Sasuke turned and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. She was in danger. The moment he realized how idiotic of an idea it was to have her run off he wanted to yell. Furious with himself, he pushed his legs further…

… only to run directly into the man's long blade.

The white-haired man had materialized directly in front of him, a long sword pointed at Sasuke. Appearing too quickly for Sasuke to be able to move out of the way, he'd ended up running into the blade. Which was currently pierced straight through his chest.

And as soon as the blade had entered his body, the man pulled it out, casually wiping the blood directly onto his bright white cloak. "I didn't want to do that, but you left me with no choice."

Sasuke fell to his knees, stumbling off the branch and to the forest floor below. Hitting the ground he coughed up a large amount of blood, finding it almost impossible to take air into his lungs.

"I was going to just leave you blind. But now I guess you'll have to die," he said, as if saddened by his decision. "I find it terribly disappointing that I'll have to orphan another child. Haruno Sakura put up much more of a fight than this."

Lifting his head Sasuke glared at him, unable to say anything—instead the only thing he could get to come out of his mouth was more blood. The taste of iron was almost enough to push Sasuke over the edge towards unconsciousness, but at the mentioning of Sakura, his mind was struggling to form a coherent sentence; his thoughts were running a mile a second. Spitting a mouthful of blood on the man's white cloak, all Sasuke could manage was a weakened glare.

Before the man could lift his sword once more, he could hear a faint noise. Bodies were approaching, and quickly.

"Hm," the man sheathed his sword, glancing down at Sasuke with a smile, "it seems this will have to wait for another day."

"It's him!" Sasuke heard a voice nearby yell. Still watching the white-clad man's figure, he observed as the man waved toward the newcomers and smiled, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Unable to hold his head up any longer, Sasuke's thoughts were only centered around two people; Sakura and Katahana. The way he'd spoken of Sakura made Sasuke's chest erupt in a pain not caused by man-made tools. Was she dead? Had this man killed her?

And as he struggled to keep his eyes opened, he tried looking off into the distance, more than anything wanting to apologize to Katahana.  _I'm sorry I couldn't protect you_.

But just before he allowed his eyes to close, a tiny form flew through the trees and directly over top of him. If he had the ability to even inhale, he would've sighed in relief. Her dark gray jacket and long black hair made her presence known to Sasuke as she landed on the opposite side of where he'd been facing.

" _Stay back!"_  he heard her tiny voice screech toward the approaching forms. With as much strength as he could muster, adrenaline pumping once more at the sight of the child alive and well, he rolled himself over onto his stomach and slowly picked himself up on all fours, slowing rising to his unsteady feet.

Taking note of his blood-soaked clothing, and the pool of red steadily growing beneath him, he knew that it wasn't very likely he'd survive any further fighting, but he'd try and protect Katahana until the very end.

It wasn't until he looked at her face, which was staring back at him, worried and scared, when he fell to his knees once more.

The shock hit him like a ton of bricks—no, it was unlike anything else he'd ever felt before. Bright red eyes stared back at his, the child's sharingan glowing in the night.

"Sasuke!" she ran up to him and grabbed his sleeve. "We have to get up, we have to move!"

Sasuke could not move. All he could do was stare back into her eyes. The same eyes as his.

_"I'm not going to hurt the child, Sasuke. I may even decide to let her keep her eyes."_

_"I find it terribly disappointing that I'll have to orphan another child."_

_"Haruno Sakura put up much more of a fight than this."_

Opening his mouth, nothing more except for more blood spilled out, causing Katahana to scream, terrified at the sight of him before her, dying.

"Hana!" A voice called from behind her, appearing before the child seconds later, "Katahana!"

Sasuke could hardly make out the glowing form before him, but the voice was unmistakable.

"Naruto," the child sobbed, "You have to help him! Please help him."

"Sasuke!" just as the ex-Leaf nin allowed himself to fall forward, a pair of glowing yellow arms caught him. As Sasuke fell into unconsciousness all he could do was listen as voices yelled back and forth to each other. The last thing he remembered seeing was Katahana, tears spilling from bright red eyes.


	10. Chapter 10

Pressing his lips against hers, Sasuke held his ground waiting for a reaction.

Releasing a shocked squeak, Sakura quickly got over her surprise and responded eagerly. The two kissed each other with such fervor and passion that, momentarily, they seemed to forget their location—thirty feet in the air. Almost stumbling over the edge of the thick bough of the tree, Sasuke grabbed Sakura around the waist, steadying her, before pulling her against him and crashing his lips against hers once more.

They kissed with the all the pent-up emotion and passion they'd built up over the years, all of it pouring out at once. Their emotions collided together in a frenzy; both of them held the other close, exploring each other with wandering hands, unable to get enough of one another.

They'd soon come to realize, that after that night, they'd never get enough of one another. No matter how many more nights they'd spend together deep in the forest, under the cover of the trees and light of the moon, their bodies joining together in synchronized passion. They would always want more.

Sasuke and Sakura spent the next five days training, eating meals together, and preparing for war together. They spent nights together in the forest, reminiscing on old times, talking about their pasts and catching each other up on the last four years of their lives. They started each night out with conversation, which would eventually lead to kissing, then to sex, and then ending once more in conversation. Afterward, they'd lie together in the cool grass, letting the conversation die down as they took comfort in each other's company, ending each night in comfortable silence. They'd return to the base in the early hours of the morning.

They talked about everything and anything.

Everything, except their forthcoming separation.

Neither wanted to think or speak about the fact that they'd never see each other again. So they didn't.

And when it came time, almost three weeks later, for Sasuke to make his departure, there were no dramatic or prolonged goodbyes. There were actually no goodbyes at all. Sasuke was deemed healed of all of his injuries that he'd sustained in battle and was therefore discharged from the hospital. Sakura, who'd been immediately sent to a base dozens of miles away in order to help the other war victims, had been too busy to even stop by and check on his condition. When she finally returned, she was only met with the frowns of her fellow medic-nin, as they informed her of his discharge, three days prior.

He left behind no note. No memento for Sakura to have. He left her with nothing but the memories and experiences they'd shared together.

Or at least.

So he'd thought.

* * *

With the conscious world slowly crawling back to him, Sasuke did not know where he was, or what had happened as he awakened. Opening his eyes, he reclosed them immediately as the bright lights of the room hurt his eyes. Peering through partially opened eyelids at his surroundings, he found himself in a bare room.

Lifting himself with his arms, he couldn't hold back the groan of pain he released. Seconds after the sound escaped, a head peeked into the doorway and looked at him with wide, pale eyes.

"You're awake!" she said, seemingly shocked at his conscious form. Sasuke looked back at her, studying the face he hadn't seen since the war. Hyuuga Hinata stood in the doorway for a moment, stunned, before collecting herself and walking up to his bedside. "How are you feeling?"

Sasuke had never particularly liked Hinata, although he had never found himself disliking her either, which he couldn't say for a majority of his old classmates. She'd been quiet and hardly ever spoke to him at all. The last time he'd seen her had been when he'd left the hospital after the war was over. She'd nervously asked him if he wanted her to pass on a message to Sakura, but he said nothing to her, walking past her and towards the exit.

Her hair was slightly shorter, he thought, but just as dark as ever. But she looked the same for the most part; older by a few years of course, but no considerable changes. Her byakugan had always been her most distinguishing characteristic, followed closely by her soft-spoken voice.

Sasuke did not reply to her question as he studied his condition. Lifting his hand to his head, his fingertips brushed against the bandages which were currently wrapped securely across his forehead. Then, trying to adjust his positioning once more, he shifted himself into a more upright position, wincing at the sharp pain in his chest.

"Careful!" the woman squeaked timidly, holding her arms out to him, "Here let me—"

"I'm fine," he insisted in a rough, scratchy voice, declining her assistance. Upon further inspection, he noted how his chest was also thoroughly bandaged.

"You were very lucky," Hinata said quietly as she noted his observation of his bandaged torso. "The blade just barely missed your spine."

He had to repress a slight shudder at her words. In fighting his opponent for hardly 5 minutes, Sasuke had almost managed to paralyze himself with his own carelessness.

Looking at the window to his right, Sasuke could only assume he was in the hospital in Konoha. The sky was dark, the blackness of the night swallowing the village whole. How long had he been unconscious? A few hours? A few days?

"Where's Naruto?" he asked turning his head back to meet her worried gaze. "Where's—"

The lump that appeared in his throat at the thought of Katahana stopped his speech immediately. His hands at his sides clenched and unclenched, his eyes facing down slightly, staring at the end of his hospital bed. Trying to stop his thoughts from running rampant, he shook his head and looked at Hinata again.

"Where's Naruto?" he asked again demandingly causing Hinata to flinch back at his words.

"I'm right here."

His head shooting towards the doorway, he spotted Naruto slowly entering the room, a toddler perched on his hip. Naruto met his gaze with a serious expression of his own before turning to Hinata and smiling gently.

Sasuke watched as the dark-haired child reached toward the timid woman, and with a tiny giggle wrapped its chubby arms around her neck as Naruto passed the child off to her. Making a blubbering noise, the child pressed its face into Hinata's shoulder before turning its head toward Sasuke.

A tiny pair of byakugan stared back at him curiously. The child pointed a chubby finger at Sasuke before turning to Naruto and babbling some incoherent nonsense.

"That's Sasuke," Naruto told the small boy with a smile. "He's an old friend."

Completely ignoring Naruto's casual use of the word 'friend', all Sasuke could honestly wonder was how on Earth Naruto knew what that child had been saying, with its incomprehensible baby mumbling.

"I'll see you guys in a little bit," Naruto said before leaning forward and giving Hinata a quick peck on the lips. The woman smiled back brightly and with the child now in her arms walked toward the doorway, quietly telling the child to 'say bye to Daddy'. The child merely giggled and waved both of his chubby hands toward the two men before Hinata walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Sasuke was relieved when the woman finally left with the child, feeling slightly uncomfortable at the sight of familial affection before him. "You've got a kid," he deadpanned, still trying to wrap his head around the thought of Naruto being a father.

Naruto turned toward him, grinning brightly. "That's Kenji. He'll be two this December." He grabbed a chair out of the corner of the room and dragged it behind him, sitting himself at Sasuke's side.

"Hinata?" Sasuke looked at Naruto, an eyebrow raised. He hadn't seen that one coming. But for all he knew, the two could have been together even back during the war; Sasuke hadn't paid close enough attention to the girl, and he'd hardly seen the two together.

Naruto kept his grin, blushing slightly and scratching the back of his head. "We've been married almost 3 years now." Sasuke merely nodded before turning his head back toward the window.

"Sasuke," Naruto spoke after a couple minutes of silence. He sighed, "I take it you have some questions?"

The Uchiha ignored him, his fists grasping the sheets below him tightly, his jaw clenched. Still gazing out the window he almost laughed as he noted the ANBU member perched in a tree slightly off in the distance, watching him through the dark of night. A sense of déjà vu washed over him.

"Where's Katahana?" he asked, eyes still trained on the window.

"She's on the floor below this one, in the children's ward." He explained, his expression serious. "She's not hurt," he said quickly after Sasuke turned his gaze toward him and glared, "we're just holding her there for now."

"Tell me," Sasuke commanded, trying to hide the shaking of his voice, "is she—is she my…"

Naruto nodded once, "She's your daughter."

Hearing it spoken out loud made Sasuke's head spin. Since he'd placed the pieces together out in the woods before losing consciousness, he was still skeptical. Some part of his mind insisted to him that there was some coincidence or misunderstanding or just  _something_  that wouldn't end with him being the father to a child he didn't know existed in the first place.

"Does she," he paused, clearing his throat which was suddenly tight, "does she know who I am?"

"No," he shook his head. "She's never been told about you. She's actually only recently started asking about who her father was; I'd say she first asked about a year ago," he thought back, scratching his chin slightly. "Sakura always handled it well though, so we haven't had to explain anything yet."

His thoughts were out-of-control, chaotic and messy, spinning, but ultimately centered on this child.  _His_  child. Then his mind starting putting the pieces together about another situation…

"Sakura. She's still missing isn't she?"

Naruto nodded grimly, "Yes. Shikamaru had told me he'd contacted you about it. To be honest we were really hoping you would know," he sighed. "You were basically our last shot."

"How long?"

"It's been almost a month since we heard from her last. We hadn't known where either of them was for the longest time. They were scheduled to stop by and take refuge for a few months in the Village Hidden in the Sand; Gaara offered his assistance. But when we didn't hear anything, we'd started to fear the worst…" Naruto shook his head before looking Sasuke in the eye. "We had no idea that of all people to come across, Hana would come across you. Shikamaru told me that you were attempting to cross the border and that you had a missing Konoha child with you," he let out a grim laugh, "but for some reason none of us figured it'd be her."

"That man, the one in the white." Sasuke's muscled clenched in anger, "Who is he?"

"Masaru," Naruto said with malice, frustration taking hold. "He's been after Hana for quite some time. I've only ever encountered him a few times, but he's infuriatingly difficult to battle, and even harder to track."

"Is it some sort of teleportation jutsu?"

"I don't know. Shikamaru doubts it, and I trust his judgment. We're pretty sure it's something entirely different." He sighed, "We just don't know yet."

"He's after the sharingan," he said grimly, "isn't he?"

"Yes. Somehow word has spread over the past few years that there'd been another Uchiha. And I guess with your disappearance some people figured they'd take a stab at trying to obtain it."

Sasuke's blood boiled as he listened to Naruto talk. These idiots thought they could simply  _take_  the sharingan from an Uchiha?

"Do they have a death wish?"

"They must," Naruto said, understanding Sasuke's fury. "There'd been a few people here and there that weren't much of a threat to us, but in the past few months, things have gotten worse. That's when Masaru first made an appearance."

"He was the seventh person in less than two days that I'd stumbled upon who knew who she was," Sasuke said angrily. "Just how many of them are there out there!?"

"A lot," Naruto said sadly, "Masaru has an entire network of people working under him. They do most of the dirty work."

Sasuke hadn't realized that he was shaking with fury until Naruto put a firm hand on his shoulder. Glaring at the young Hokage, Sasuke brushed his hand off of him before placing a hand on his forehead, as if he could physically get his thoughts and emotions to steady themselves. He had a daughter. A seven-year old daughter who was being hunted by a man who wanted her eyes. His daughter, who didn't know who he was, or even who  _she_ was.

"She doesn't know why she'd being attacked." It wasn't a question. Sasuke looked back up at Naruto, eyes narrowing. "She told me herself. Why didn't you tell her?"

"We knew that it would lead to more questions and more trouble—"

"So you hid the truth from her?"

"Sasuke," Naruto spoke in a loud, firm voice, trying to calm down Sasuke, who he could see was growing increasingly irritated. "Sakura tried to do what she thought was best for her," he explained. "The past 8 years have been hard on her. She's been doing the best she can."

To that, Sasuke's mouth closed tightly, biting the inside of his cheek as he tried to keep his emotions in check.

"That man. Masaru. He must have been the one who attacked Sakura and Katahana."

"What makes you so sure?"

"He told me himself," he confessed in a dull voice. "About how he didn't want to 'orphan another child' and how Sakura had 'put up much more of a fight' than I had," he said bleakly.

Naruto quickly covered his shock with a pensive face. "Well, we've been asking Hana various questions over the course of the past couple days. So we'll have to pinpoint precisely where they were attacked and go from there."

Sasuke nodded absently, agreeing with Naruto's words. His thoughts were miles away; or more appropriately, a floor away.

"You can go see her you know?" the ex-missing-nin looked at his old teammate with an apprehensive face. "She's been asking about you." Sasuke couldn't reply verbally. All he could do was nod once and swallow the lump in his throat.

Sasuke didn't get nervous. It hadn't happened since he was a child. He was fearless and could take on any enemy regardless of the danger, without batting an eye. This though…

This was entirely different. He'd gone from being a misanthropic loner to being a father over the course of the week. He was still working to wrap his head around it all, but he found that he could hardly comprehend it all.

"You don't have to now, of course," he said quickly, as if sensing Sasuke's discomfort. "But if you decide to, she's in room 503."

"I'll go," Sasuke said, throwing his blanket off of himself. Shifting his weight he flung his feet over the side, wincing in pain. He held his hand up to keep Naruto at bay, "I'm fine," he stated through gritted teeth.

Naruto nodded before handing Sasuke a shirt, which he quickly put on over his head, despite the screaming protest from the pain in his abdomen. Then with a look of determination on his face, he stood up on bare, unsteady feet and looked at Naruto, who was standing cautiously beside him. "Take me there."

* * *

Sasuke stood at the door for what seemed like hours, staring at the tiny plate next to the doorframe, with a blue '503' etched into the metallic surface. Behind him, Naruto stood waiting patiently for Sasuke to open the door.

"Naruto," he said low, still facing the door, "does..."

The blonde-haired man waited for a long minute for Sasuke to continue, and when he failed to do so, he raised an eyebrow, "Yes?"

"Does she prefer Katahana, or Hana?"

Naruto couldn't keep the smile off of his face as he addressed the back of his friend's head, "You can ask her yourself. Now," he pressed a hand firmly against Sasuke's back, urging him forward, "go introduce yourself to your daughter."

Attempting to swallow the lump in his throat that simply wouldn't go away, Sasuke placed his hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it. Opening the door a few inches, he paused, waiting to hear some sort of acknowledgement from inside. Peeking his head through the door, he looked into the room scanning it for any signs of the child.

It wasn't until he saw the pair of feet sticking out from beneath the hospital bed. Walking completely into the room, he turned and gave Naruto one last fleeting glance—to which he replied with a smile and eager thumbs up—before closing the door gently behind him. The 'click' of the doorknob being put back into place caused a small squeak from underneath the bed.

Katahana looked up at him from underneath the bed, and as she noticed who was standing before her, she let out a small cry before scrambling to her feet and running towards him.

Sasuke barely had time to say anything before she crashed into his chest, tiny arms wrapping around him, trapping him in a strong hug. Trying to suppress a groan, Sasuke stood his ground, determined to stay standing  _and_  conscious as the pain tore through him.

"Careful," he said, his voice strained. "I'm a little… sore."

Her tearful eyes looked up at him regretfully before she quickly released him and began apologizing.

"I'm so sorry Sasuke I didn't mean to hurt you I'd forgotten that you were hurt there! I'm sorry I was just really really worried and wasn't thinking and—"

"Katahana," he said, leaning down slightly until he was almost at her eye level, "it's fine," he assured. "You can stop apologizing." She took in a deep breath before letting it out dramatically, swinging her arms at her side. He frowned, "Why were you under the bed?"

"I was hiding," she admitted, embarrassed. "I don't want them finding me anymore."

Sasuke suddenly found himself not knowing what he should say to the girl. Or how he should even approach the subject of him being her father.

He should have let Naruto do all of this for him.

"Let's… talk." He spoke with an uneasy voice, causing Katahana to gaze up at him, concerned.

"Okay," she mumbled quietly before moving toward her bed. Sitting at the top of it toward the pillows, she picked one up and hugged it tightly, watching him as he cautiously approached the bed and sat down.

Letting his apprehension get the best of him, he let out a long sigh, before taking a deep breath and turning toward her.

"Are you leaving?" she asked in a small voice, before he could even think to say anything.

"Leaving?"

"Yeah, as in, going somewhere and leaving me here."

Sasuke thought hard. He hadn't even thought that far ahead. At the present time all he'd been concerned about on their way to the village was getting her there safe and sound. Now that he was there, he didn't know what he'd do next.

"I… don't know," when her face fell into a sad, almost devastated-looking expression, he seemed to have known that was the wrong thing to say. "I mean, I don't know what I'll be doing, yet."

Her face did not brighten, but her sadness seemed to let up a bit. "Okay," she muttered in a small voice.

"Katahana, did your mother ever talk to you about your father?"

The small girl seemed to think for a few seconds, obviously not expecting that question to be asked. "Uh, not really. She would tell me that it wasn't time for me to know about him yet."

Sasuke frowned. "So you don't know anything about him?"

She began to shake her head, but stopped abruptly, "Well, I don't know what it has to do with anything. But a couple times, at the park, I've heard a few of the adults whispering about me," she frowned. "They'd always say the word 'Uchiha' and I never knew what that meant." She stretched her arms above her head and leaned back against the headboard of the bed. "I asked my mom and Naruto-san and I even asked Ino-san!" she said, exasperated. "The only person who would tell me  _anything_  was Kakashi-san."

Sasuke wanted to scoff. Leave it to Kakashi to tell a child something that everybody else would try to keep a secret from her.

"He told me it was a very important name," she said matter-of-factly, "that not many people get to have. Which doesn't really make sense since my name is Haruno. But he told me that it was a good thing, and that I shouldn't worry about it!" She paused and looked at him with an inquisitive glance. "One of those bad men," she spoke quietly, "the ones who snuck into your house. They called you that, too, didn't they?"

"Uchiha is my name," he explained to the child. "Uchiha Sasuke." He hesitated, trying to form his next sentence as best as he could. "Uchiha is not your given name," he explained slowly, "but nevertheless, you are an Uchiha."

"Okay?" she said, her face scrunched up in confusion, clearly not understanding.

"Katahana," he took in a deep breath, "we share the same name, because we're related." She looked up at him with wide eyes, taken off guard. "I'm your father, Katahana."

He held his breath after the words left his mouth, hanging in the air. The words ricocheted around in his own head after he uttered them.  _I'm your father. Your father. I'm your father Katahana._

"You are?" she asked in a small, quiet voice. He nodded in reply. She hugged the pillow tightly, pulling at a loose string on the end of it. "Where did you meet mom?" Sasuke stared back at the child. He hadn't been expecting for  _that_  to be the first thing she asked him.

"Your mother and I were teammates back when we were children."

"With Naruto-san, right?"

"Right," he nodded, relieved that the conversation seemed to be going smoothly. "We were friends and then—" he paused, not knowing how to explain the situation to the child. Looking down at her, he knew he needed to be as vague as possible. "And then I left for a few years to… take care of some things. And then I met up with Naruto and your mother again and we… became… friends again," he said awkwardly, trying to sugarcoat the conversation as much as he was able to.

"But," as her upper lip started trembling, Sasuke already knew what she was going to ask, "why did you leave?"

"Before you were born," Sasuke paused, again searching for the correct words to use, "I was planning on moving away. So when your mother found out that she was going to have a baby, I was already moved far, far away."

"Oh," she whispered. "So, you didn't know I was born?"

"No," he conceded, "I didn't know you were my daughter until we got here."

Repeating his words in his head, Sasuke's frustration grew. Sakura had been pregnant with his child. She'd given birth to  _and_  raised his child. And he'd never once been notified.

Before he could allow any anger to surface, he tried reasoning with himself. Shikamaru himself had said that they had been searching for him for a while. Besides, even if they  _had_  found him and informed him of the situation, what would he have done then? Returned to the village?

The more he thought about it, the less uncertain his thoughts grew.

"So you're my dad?"

He nodded, "Yes."

"Can I…" her face flushed a soft pink color as she buried her head in the pillow and mumbled something.

"What?" he asked, unable to hear a single word she'd uttered.

"Is it okay if I… call you dad?"

Taken off guard, the lump in Sasuke's throat was more prominent than ever. His chest was tight with a confusing array of emotions and he couldn't bring himself to speak even a single word. Slowly, he nodded his head once.

"Okay," she nodded, trying to hide her steadily-growing grin behind the pillow she held in her arms. "So when you helped me and gave me food and stuff, you didn't know who I was?" He shook his head. "That's so crazy!" she giggled. "See, I knew I was going to meet you I knew it!" she giggled loudly, bouncing up and down excitedly on the mattress beneath her.

Suddenly, a quiet knock on the door brought Sasuke's attention away from the bouncing girl in front of him.

"Oh Hana," a voice called as the door slowly opened, "I have something for you!" opening the door, Yamanaka Ino stood, grinning, a tray full of food in her grasp. Upon seeing Sasuke though, she faltered, almost dropping the tray to the ground.

"Oh! Sasuke, I didn't know you were in here," with wide, shocked eyes she looked from him, to Katahana, and back again. "It's good to see you again."

"Ino-san Ino-san!" she child called, hopping off the bed and running over to the young woman. she grabbed hold of her shirt and pulled the woman after her. "Look! It's my dad! He's here!"

Ino looked at Sasuke with wide eyes, looking back down to Katahana, who stood grinning up at her. As she looked back at Sasuke, he closed his eyes and nodded once, confirming the shocking revelation. She knew.

Pulling a smile onto her face, Ino reached down and patted Katahana's head. "That's so exciting!" she said, trying to be as eager and enthusiastic as she could. "Now sit down. I have dinner!"

The child scrambled up into the bed and sat, legs crossed, arms held out in front of her. Taking the tray she immediately began eating.

Ino shot another concerned look at the girl and folded her arms across her chest. Glancing over at Sasuke, finding his eyes on the girl, she nudged one of his legs with her own. When he looked over at her, she motioned for him to follow her. He nodded and stood.

"Hey, we're going to go catch up on some stuff," Ino said leaning over to Katahana, who was currently drinking some sort of juice. "But we'll be back in a few, alright?" She kissed the child on the forehead before shooting her another smile. Katahana smiled back brightly before directing her attention back at her meal.

"Come on," she muttered to Sasuke as she walked out of the room, leading the way.

Sasuke had to repress a sigh as he followed the woman out into the hallway.

As Ino closed the door she took a few steps farther down the hall, so that they'd be out of ear-shot of Katahana if she were to attempt to eavesdrop. "I'm not going to lie," she said, stopping and turning to look at Sasuke, taking in his slightly disheveled appearance, "I was not expecting to see you around these parts. When Shikamaru told me you were heading back and needed help, I laughed in his face. That was until I saw you bleeding to death in Naruto's arms and Katahana screaming her head off." She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, "I thought you said something about never wanting to return to the village?"

"This wasn't exactly planned," he stated in his defense, not enjoying her sarcastic tone.

She held up a hand to stop him from saying anything further. "Don't bother explaining anything now. There's going to be a meeting later that I'll be at, and we'll be getting all that information out of you then."

"If there's nothing you want from me then why are we out here?"

"Oh, I didn't say that there wasn't anything I wanted to hear from you. Just that I didn't want you explaining your little 'adventure' yet. I just want to know what you're planning on doing now."

Sasuke stared back at her severe expression, not giving anything away. "I don't know yet."

Ino scoffed at him. "Well it's not as if you have many options to choose from. You can stay in the village. You can leave. It's really not that hard of a question," she pointed out.

"I'm not going to repeat myself," he growled in a low voice. "I'm still trying to let it sink in that I have a child I never knew about."

Ino laughed. "Yeah cause Sakura  _so_  had a way of letting you know she was pregnant. And you  _totally_  would have come running back if you knew. And there isn't a single  _doubt_  in my mind that you would've looked after the two of them like such a  _loving_ father—"

"I don't have to hear this," he snapped, turning around and walking back toward Katahana's door.

"I think you do," Ino declared. "I think that you need to know all Sakura's done for you and your child, and all we've done to keep her safe."

Sasuke stopped, cursing himself. He didn't want to owe these people anything. It's not like he knew he had a daughter, and it wasn't as if he'd asked anyone to take care of her for him.

But the more and more he thought about her words, he relented, his shoulders slouching as he turned back around to face the woman. Without him even asking, they'd helped to raise his child and to protect her. They'd been doing it her entire life, and he'd only been  _attempting_  to do it for a few days.

"She's a great kid," Ino mentioned after he walked back up to where she stood, leaning against the wall. "Very smart and charismatic." Ino grinned, "I don't think there's ever been a person who's met her that doesn't love her."

"Is it a known fact that I'm…"

"That you're her father? Oh definitely. A select few of us knew while she was pregnant, but after she was born, it was unmistakable. She looks just like you after all. Same eyes, same hair."

"And people were okay with that?"

"Oh, hell no. Not at first. There were people who still harbored ill will towards you and the Uchiha as a whole. Dozens of people called for her banishment from the village, screaming ridiculous things about the 'cursed clan' and that she'd only 'grow up to be a monster'." Sasuke's eyes widened as he balled his hands into fists, but the blonde shook her head, "Don't worry. As soon as Naruto heard of this, he decided it was an appropriate time to enlighten the people on the truth of the Uchiha."

Sasuke's fury quickly dissipated and replaced itself with shock. "After everyone learned the truth, their animosity diminished until there were only a few, old, bitter souls left, who still held their resentment regardless of what was said. But there haven't been any problems since. And Katahana's had an extremely normal childhood."

He had been aware that Naruto had eventually made the truth about Itachi's sacrifice and the village's wrong-doings common knowledge amongst the people of the Hidden Leaf—the last time he had seen Naruto, which had been 3 years after his departure, the Hokage informed him of it—but he had no idea that in doing so, he'd helped to ensure a pleasant future for his daughter.

A strange tightness presented itself in Sasuke's throat. No matter how much he wanted to deny it, he knew he'd have to thank Naruto sooner or later.

"She may look like you," Ino let out a small laugh, "but she acts a lot more like Sakura. Social, outspoken, very warm-hearted. She's very competitive though," she grinned at the man, "Sakura swears she gets that from you, but I think it may be a little bit from both of her parents. Oh and definitely the stubbornness as well."

Sasuke was struggling to take all of this information in. But with his exhaustion, healing injuries, and still reeling from the fact that he had a  _daughter_ , he could hardly wrap his head around any of this new information.

"I just want to know one thing," Sasuke said, cutting Ino off. "Who is after her?"

"That'll have to wait until the meeting later. It'll take a long time to explain anyways."

"How long has Sakura been missing now?"

Ino's expression turned grim. "It'll be a month the day after tomorrow."

"And still no luck?" Sasuke wasn't hopeful.

"Nothing. We're starting to run out of options, too." She shook her head in frustration, trying to keep her emotions at bay. "But if Katahana asks, please just tell her that everyone is looking, and that we'll bring her back."

Sasuke noted how Ino didn't bother tacking on the word 'alive' to her statement. Since his encounter with Shikamaru a few days prior, it seemed that everyone was beginning to lose hope of finding Sakura.

"Now I'll see you tonight," she yawned, stretching her arms above her head, her shirt riding up and revealing more of her already-exposed stomach. "I've been up all night with Katahana, so I'm going to hit the hay." She looked him up and down, "You should probably get some rest, too. You look like shit."

He glared, not amused. She laughed in reply, "You haven't changed a bit, Sasuke. Still no sense of humor after all these years."

He turned to leave her where she stood, but just before he reached Katahana's door, Ino called toward him. "If you're planning on staying long, I'll just warn you that someone will be dropping by really soon. We all take turns making sure someone is here with her. We have a little shift-system worked out."

"Who?" Sasuke asked, as if that would determine whether he'd stay or not. Really, it would determine whether or not he'd stay for a few seconds, or a few minutes.

"I can't remember. Either Kiba or Lee."

Frowning, he decided he'd stay long enough to say goodbye. He didn't feel like dealing with either of the two men. At least, not yet. Opening her door and stepping inside, he was immediately approached by a running child, who wrapped him tightly in a hug, giggling into his side.

He'd deal with everyone else later, when he had to.

But as he hesitantly leaned down on one knee and wrapped a cautious arm around her, he knew they could wait until later. There were more important things—and people—to deal with now.


	11. Chapter 11

Poking around at his dinner, he knew he wouldn't be able to eat any of the lukewarm food. His head hurt, he was tired, and his stomach was in knots at the thought of the impending meeting he was to attend that grew closer and closer as time passed. Naruto had stopped by once more since the early hours of the morning, just to check on him and inform him of the meeting. After informing the Hokage that Ino had already informed him, Sasuke listened to Naruto say a few more things before briskly making an exit, leaving him to resume his impatient pacing.

He'd wanted to spend more time with Katahana; he'd be lying if he said otherwise. But he didn't want to sit in the same room with one of his ex-comrades while he tried to familiarize himself with his daughter. As he'd left Katahana's room during the morning, he'd just barely avoided an encounter with the Inuzuka man. Turning the corner, he could faintly hear the whining of the man's large dog, just at the opposite end of the hall. But instead of turning to acknowledge the two, he continued walking, disappearing through the doors of the stairwell and swiftly making his ascent towards his room.

He had never been a big fan of Kiba or Akamaru, and he was not about to 'make nice' with either of them. Or at least not yet.

He was still silently thinking of his old comrades, and how—according to Ino—they'd all helped Sakura to raise Katahana. His and Sakura's daughter.

And as his mind shifted to Sakura, his headache intensified. He'd intended on leaving that day, soon after the war, without doing anything of any sort of significance. He didn't want her to remember him or dwell on their final weeks together any more than she needed to.

But not only had he left her with more than he'd intended, it had been a  _child_  of all things.

Stupidly enough, the possibility of conception wasn't even a thought of Sasuke's the entire time the two were sneaking off into the woods each night. He felt like an idiot for being so careless and dumb at the time, but he did not dwell on it for long.

Sure they'd been young and irresponsible, but there was nothing that could be done about it anymore. Now, there was a child involved—their child—and there was a situation at hand that was so dangerous, that even within days of being in contact with the child, he'd almost been killed.

And the same people, who were after his daughter, may have possibly even killed Sakura.

Pushing his tray of food away from him and onto a table nearby, he grimaced as his stomach did flips. He refused to think of that. She couldn't have been killed, it wasn't possible. She was stronger than that, damnit. He knew she was.

But once more his mind drifted back toward Katahana as Ino's voiced echoed in his head. What  _was_  he going to do now? If Sakura really was dead, would he stay with the child, and try to be a father to her? Even if Sakura wasn't, would he stay, or would he simply leave again to continue his meaningless life of solitude?

Trying to remove the stressful thoughts from his head, he decided that he would think through all of that once the time came. For now, all he needed to worry about was the meeting he'd be dragged to later.

Yet as Naruto opened the door, Sasuke knew he wouldn't have to wait any longer.

"Ready?" Naruto asked, donning his long, orange and white cloak. The Hokage look suited Naruto, Sasuke thought. He'd never tell the man that though. He was sure that his ego didn't need to be boosted more than it already probably was.

Sasuke nodded, not trusting his voice to sound as sturdy as he wanted it to. The sun had set almost an hour ago, and as the two walked up the stairs toward the roof, Sasuke faltered.

"Who's with Katahana?" Since Ino had told him that she, as well as the others, would be at this meeting, he had neglected to think about who would be looking after the girl.

"Don't worry," Naruto said, handing Sasuke a black, hooded cloak, "She's already where we're going. I brought her there myself."

A little reassured by Naruto's words, he threw on the cloak, fastening it at the top before the two exited the stairwell onto the roof.

Wasting no time, the two jumped quickly and deftly from rooftop to rooftop, making their way toward the Hokage monument. Not noticing it before, Sasuke took in the new addition to the monument on the far right. He could understand what Katahana had been telling him before; it hardly resembled Naruto at all. Unsure whether or not they intended for him to look old and bored, the stone-carved Naruto appeared to be sporting a grimace.

Stopping just at the base of the mountain, Naruto walked over to a small divot in the rock, placing his hand over top of it. Sasuke watched as Naruto make a quick series of hand signs before hitting his palm flat against the stone. Slowly, a wide sheet of rock moved aside, revealing a passageway which led directly down a flight of stairs.

As Naruto walked straight down the stairs, Sasuke watched him for a moment, but as the stone began to close once more, he swiftly entered after the man and followed closely behind him.

The stairwell was very dimly lit, a torch lit every dozen or so steps, but Sasuke made his way down the steep stairs carefully, remaining close to Naruto the entire time. Although when the blonde man stopped abruptly, Sasuke almost ran into the back of him.

"What are you doing?" he growled, supporting himself on the hard wall beside him. He glanced around Naruto and down the stairs, not seeing an end in sight.

"We're almost there," Naruto said, making another small series of hand signs, and once more hitting his open hand against the hard stone, "calm down."

"I am calm," he retorted with a glare. Yet his reaction was stunned as another passageway opened to their left, revealing a long hallway.

Following Naruto through the second hidden passageway and throwing a glance over his shoulder when the entrance re-sealed itself, Sasuke's attention was brought to the opposite end of the hallway. He could hear the low hum of voices, and as they approached the brightly lit end of the hallway Sasuke took note of the multiple voices.

As they walked by one particular doorway, Sasuke's eye wandered into it. Yet before his eyes could focus on one single thing, a small voice called to him.

"Dad!"

Hearing the child's voice, his head turned toward her, as if by an old habit. She sat grinning at him from a long couch, waving her tiny arms toward him. Slowing to a stop, Sasuke stood hesitantly in the doorway, observing the two other occupants of the room. Sitting on the couch by her side was Hinata, and in her lap was the small boy he'd seen the night before.

"Come here! Look at what Kenji can do!"

Sasuke almost jumped as Naruto put his hand on his back and slowly pushed him into the room. Glaring at his old teammate, Naruto only grinned widely before walking around him and toward his wife.

"Look Kenji," Katahana spoke to the toddler, "it's your dad  _and_  my dad!" She said pointing from Naruto to Sasuke.

"Dad!" the little boy exclaimed, standing himself up on the couch, bouncing up and down. "Dad dad dad!" Naruto laughed, walking up to the boy and picking him up. Throwing the boy lightly into the air and catching him, the boy let out a shrill laugh, before hugging the blonde man's head, his tiny arms hardly wrapping all the way around.

"Hana play," the boy said, tapping a small hand against Naruto's cheek. "Hana play!"

"Hana's playing with you, huh? Did you miss her?"

The little boy nodded his head, still giggling, "Miss Hana. Hana play!"

Watching Naruto play with his child in awe, Sasuke hardly noticed when Katahana walked over to him. It wasn't until her small hand wrapped around a couple of his fingers when he looked down at her. She wasn't looking at him though; instead she was watching Naruto play with his son.

"I was trying to teach him how to whistle," she said to the blonde man. "But he's not very good at it."

Naruto laughed, "I can believe that. Maybe you can try teaching him once he's a little older? Why don't you try teaching him something simpler? Like… uh…"

"How to throw a kunai?"

Sasuke had to repress a laugh, Naruto's eyes widened, and Hinata gave him a reproachful look. "Definitely not that," Hinata said, "I was thinking more along the lines of teaching him his colors. Or how to count to a certain number."

"Yeah but that's  _boring,_ "she said in a whiny voice. "Naruto-san taught me how when I was little like him!"

Naruto winced as his wife glared at him once more. "Yes but do you remember how much trouble he got in?" She stood and retrieved the pale-eyed boy from his father's arms. "Your mother was not happy."

Katahana shrugged. "I just remember her yelling a little."

"Yeah," Naruto laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck, "a little."

"Speaking of Mom," Katahana said quietly, hand still gripping Sasuke's fingers, "did you guys figure out when you're going to get her?"

Sasuke and Naruto shared a quick glance, but Hinata was the one who approached her. "We're going to figure that out right now actually," she said smiling at the girl. "You and Kenji are going to play a little more in here and we're all going to go across the hall and come up with a plan."

"Okay," Katahana said, smiling up at the dark-haired woman. "Make it the best plan ever!"

Hinata laughed softly and placed Kenji on the ground, watching him toddle back over toward the couch. "We'll do our best," she vowed.

"Who's going to stay in here with them?" Sasuke asked. Sure, he wasn't very good with kids, and he didn't know the first thing about parenting, but he was pretty sure that leaving a 7-year-old and a toddler in the same room together unsupervised wasn't a good idea.

"That would be me."

"Kaka-san!" Katahana suddenly released her grip on Sasuke's fingers and ran toward the doorway. Sasuke turned and watched as she jumped, running full speed, directly into the arms of Hatake Kakashi. "I've missed you so much!"

The masked man looked down at the child in his arms and gave her a tight hug. "I've missed you too, kiddo," his cheeks lifted in a smile.

Sasuke did not know why, but seeing his daughter's sudden display of affection toward his old sensei made his stomach churn. A sour feeling overtook him and he couldn't help the glare that etched itself on his face.

"I need to tell you something  _amazing_!" she said, wriggling herself down and out of his grip. Sasuke watched as she grabbed Kakashi's hand in the same way she'd held his, and the feeling in his stomach intensified. "This," she said, pulling the silver-haired man farther into the room, "is my dad!"

"Hello Sasuke," Kakashi said, smiling under his mask, "it's been a long time." The older man stood before Sasuke, studying him with a careful eye.

The Uchiha didn't reply, instead he stared back at the man with a blank expression. Kakashi had certainly started to look his age. The lines around his eye which had been faint years before were now more prominent, the stress of everyday life starting to show through his features. Doing math quickly in his head, Sasuke estimated that his old sensei had to be almost 40.

"He's an Uchiha," the small girl said to the masked man with a proud look. "Just like I am!"

"I know," he said, patting her head lightly, "the family resemblance is startling."

"Did you draw the short stick?" Naruto joked as he approached his old teacher. "Or did you lose a bet?"

"Oh no. This is all voluntary," he insisted. "You all can just fill me in when the meeting is over. In the meantime, I'll keep Konoha's deadly duo company."

Katahana giggled at the nickname given to her and Kenji, and stepped in front of Sasuke, looking up at him with a smile. "Are you going to help them bring back Mom?"

Damnit. Sasuke held the child's eyes, not wanting to look around at the other occupants of the room. He could almost feel all of their eyes staring at him intensely, waiting for him to reply. Not only hadn't he thought this through, he'd tried going out of his way to avoid having to think about it. Now he just wanted to kick himself since he was being put on the spot.

Katahana looked up at him with wide, hopeful eyes. He didn't know when, but her hands had gripped his fingers again, holding them tightly in her grasp. It wasn't until she smiled at him, a small, gentle smile, where a whole in his heart almost ripped open.

The child may have looked like him in almost every way, but she had her mother's smile.

"Yes," he vowed in a low voice, paying attention to no one but the little girl before him. "I will."

She looked up at him for a long moment, eyes wide and mouth slightly open, before grinning widely and wrapping her arms around him. The small girl buried her face in the front of his cloak, squeezing her arms tightly. After a few seconds, Sasuke expected her to release him and then skip off to do something else, but when she did not move, he grew uneasy.

The second he realized what she was waiting for, he almost grew embarrassed. Suddenly, he didn't want anyone else in this room with him. He didn't want to share this moment with anyone else.

Ignoring the anxious feeling that threatened to overtake him, he kneeled down and wrapped both of his arms around her, enveloping her in a hug.

After holding onto her father for a few seconds more, she pulled away, smiled again, and walked back over to Kakashi. As Sasuke straightened back up, he watched as his daughter grabbed the silver-haired man by the sleeve and dragged him across the room.

"While you guys are doing adult-stuff, Kenji and I are going to have fun with Kaka-san," she said matter-of-factly. Sasuke watched as she forcefully pulled Kakashi down until he was sitting on the couch and then stood before him, leaning close to his face, studying him.

Sasuke could almost see the man start to sweat as he looked at the two children in front of him with apprehension.

Naruto let out another laugh. "We'll leave you to it then. Katahana," she looked up at him, "you're in charge," he said with a sly grin, winking at Kakashi.

As Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke left the room, Hinata turned to her husband. "Do you really think that was a good idea?"

Naruto shrugged innocently, "Hey, I didn't do anything."

"Putting her in charge? She's going to take that very seriously." Her worried words only cause Naruto to let out another laugh.

Sasuke could only assume that they didn't envy Kakashi's position one bit.

Following the two other ninja, they walked only a short distance before turning into another doorway. Sasuke hesitated at the entrance before slowly stepping inside the room. Surveying his surroundings, he sighed.

A multitude of his ex-comrades as well as a couple ninja he'd never seen before, sat around the room. Couches and tables and chairs filled the room at every end, most of them occupied, and filled with ninja who were engaged in casual conversation.

It was a strange sight for him. The last time he'd seen most of these people gathered together was right before the last battle of the war had started. They'd all been younger then, their faces dirtied and scared, not knowing whether this would be their last day among the living.

For many ninja, it had been.

Upon entering the room, more and more people noted their entrance, quickly ending their conversations and sitting in silence. Sasuke didn't like the amount of eyes that were trained on him. Ignoring everyone, he followed Naruto and only stopped when the Hokage turned toward the rest of the ninja and started speaking.

"Alright," he clapped his hands together in front of him, rubbing his palms against the other, "time to get this show on the road."

"Now," Naruto turned toward Sasuke, "before we do anything else, we need to learn a few things here." His words were directed at the Uchiha. "I need you to tell us how you found Katahana, where you found her, and what happened after that, leading up until you guys arrived here."

"All of it?" he raised an eyebrow.

Naruto nodded, "Everything that you can tell us."

Sasuke's eyes quickly scanned the room once more, taking in the faces staring back at him. Some of them glared at him, most likely not too excited over his reappearance in Konoha after so long. Others looked at him curiously through narrowed eyes, eager to hear what he had to say.

"A few days before I took her in, she'd been wandering around the streets." Sasuke faced Naruto as he spoke, choosing to ignore everyone else in the room. "I figured she was another orphaned street child, so I didn't pay much attention to her," Sasuke shrugged. "After I caught her digging through my trash she started following me around." He narrowed his eyes at Naruto. "She later told me that she trusted me because I didn't know who she was."

"Sakura had been telling her to avoid any people who paid any attention to her for more than a few seconds," Ino said, chiming in. "It started out more as an eye-contact thing—not to stare at anyone who stared back. They didn't want to risk being found."

Sasuke nodded as he listened, "After I took her in, she told me that she knew I wouldn't kill her." He ignored the mocking sound the Inuzuka made, standing at the far side of the room, arms crossed. "She told me that I would've done it already if I wanted to."

"When did you find out who she was?" Another voice asked. Glancing behind him, Sasuke noted Shikamaru leaning against the wall by the doorway.

"She wouldn't tell me anything," he admitted. "She wouldn't answer a single one of my questions. All I knew was her name and age. But after a little while she started to let some things slip."

"Like?" Shikamaru said, urging him on.

"Well, for any child to mention the Kazekage and the Hokage,  _by name_ , in casual conversation, seems a little odd. Besides that, all I knew was that her mother was a ninja and that there were people after her."

"What about Sakura?" Another ninja spoke up. Sasuke recognized the voice as Rock Lee's. The man's question was not directed at him, but at Naruto. "Have we found out any further information about what happened?" He asked, worried.

Naruto frowned, letting out a long breath. "We tried talking to Katahana about it, to try and see what she could tell us, but when we asked her, she broke down and got a bit hysterical."

"I know we need to give the child some time," a ninja who Sasuke did not know spoke up next, "but we also need to gather as much information as possible. And  _soon_."

"I'm aware of that," Naruto said, agreeing with the light-haired man. "But we also need to take Hana's emotional well-being into consideration."

"You can't just expect a 7-year-old to tell you every little detail about a traumatic event like that," Ino said, snapping at the young nameless ninja. "We need to give a couple more days. At least wait until she's settled down a little."

Naruto shot the blonde woman a sad smile, understanding the root of her frustration. "We'll try again tomorrow night, but until then we'll leave her out of this," he offered, trying to appease both sides of the argument. He turned back toward Sasuke, nodding at him, waiting for him to continue.

"A few nights back, a few men broke into my apartment and attempted to abduct her," he paused, not wanting to go into too much detail, "I took care of them but then a man appeared in the window and killed both men before I could get much information out of them."

"What did he look like?" Shikamaru asked, leaning forward a bit, suddenly on alert for some reason.

"I didn't see his face, he was wearing a green mask—" Sasuke paused as multiple ninja reacted; some swore, others let out a gasp or an exasperated noise of some sort.

"Damn," Naruto muttered under his breath. "What happened afterward?"

"Nothing really," Sasuke said slowly, still observing the occupants of the room, and their respective reactions to his information, "he looked at us and then disappeared." He raised an eyebrow, "Am I to assume that this guy is important?"

"We stayed in close contact with Sakura over the course of the past few months. And in most of her messages, she reported a green-masked man following them. She never reported any sort of violent behavior from him toward them, but she was always worrying about it." The Hokage ran a hand down his tired face. "She tried to lose him several times, using multiple attempts to shake him off their trail, but nothing ever worked."

He sighed, pausing for a moment. "In her last message, she told about how he'd addressed her for the first time. He apologized for something that he said would 'happen soon enough' and he wished her a good night, telling her that she 'should enjoy her last few sunrises'."

The Uchiha couldn't ignore the sudden fury he felt at hearing this information. "How much longer after the threat was it?"

"We don't know the exact day is happened on, but it was between 2 and 4 days after he contacted her last. She was supposed to have arrived in Sunagakure five days after she contacted us last."

"We're assuming that they were attacked somewhere between the Hidden Rain and the Hidden Stone villages," Shikamaru approached the table in front of Naruto, smoothing out a large map that lay before them. Sasuke moved to stand next to the strategist, watching where the man circled an area with red ink.

"I'm guessing you've already searched there?" Sasuke asked, studying the map.

"Thoroughly," Shikamaru frowned.

Thinking back to earlier in the week, Sasuke recalled the man's words.

" _To be honest, I'm just_   _running out of places to look_."

"We need a new plan of action," Kiba said, making his presence known as he approached the table. "We need to get the information from Katahana, regroup, and send out another team."

"And we will," Ino glared at him from her side of the table, "once Katahana can talk to us without freaking out."

"Look, I'm just trying to make it so that we're not wasting any more time," he said defensively, throwing his arms up in over-exaggerated exasperation. "If you guys really want to find Sakura, then we need to act quickly."

"I know that time is important here, Kiba," Naruto said, addressing his comrade sternly, "but we also need to figure out what to do with Hana."

That not only silenced Kiba, but the rest of the room as well. Confused, Sasuke turned toward Naruto, "What needs to be figured out?"

"Once these people find out that she's here—which they will soon—they'll come by the dozens." Naruto shook his head, a frustrated, angry look on his face. "One of the main reasons Sakura opted to leave with Hana initially was because civilians were starting to die. We'd get multiple attacks each night, all because people were trying to find her. Of course, before we let Sakura even consider leaving, we tried setting up a plan of action. She was to travel to a few designated villages—where we had a safe house waiting in each one—and from there they'd lie low for a week, and then move to the next."

"As soon as they were discovered in one town, they'd have to move quickly or else they'd get attacked," Ino's expression was as grim as Naruto's.

"Eventually, after sending messages back and forth for a couple weeks, Gaara offered to help them. But, as you know, on their way…"

"They were attacked." Sasuke finished the statement for him. "Katahana had mentioned that the two of them had been split up during the attack, but she never told me how she escaped without being detected."

"That's one of the main things we're curious about, too."

"You guys do realize the only way to find it out is to actually talk to the kid?" Kiba chimed in once more, growing impatient. "I talked to her for hours earlier and she seemed fine. Let me talk to her," he offered, "I'm sure she'll tell me some things."

"Kiba, I don't think that's a good idea," Hinata rested a hand on his shoulder, trying to deter him.

"If no one else is going to take charge with this," he said stubbornly, brushing her off, "then I will." He turned toward the door and began walking.

Anger filling up in his chest as he watched the interaction between his old comrades before him, Sasuke glowered at the ninja's retreating form. Naruto and Ino had both informed all of them about Katahana's sensitivity when it came to the topic of Sakura. Not only was he disregarding all reasonable thought, but also the wishes of the damn Hokage.

Without even thinking, Sasuke moved, in the blink of an eye, to stand directly before the Inuzuka, blocking his path.

Stopping at the sudden appearance of the Uchiha before him, Kiba scowled as he halted his movement. "Oh please," he scoffed, "what?"

Sasuke didn't reply. Hell, he didn't even need to. The glare he was shooting at the man should have been a clear enough message:  _back off_.

"What? Nothing?" he scoffed, "You're wasting our time, Uchiha." As he made a move to step around the ex-Leaf nin, he found Sasuke moving to stand before him again, still standing between himself and the door. "You've gotta be kidding," he laughed. "You're not seriously doing this right now?  _You_  of all people?"

"You're not going anywhere near her," Sasuke spoke in a low voice, too quiet for most of the occupants in the room to hear.

"Wow. Look at you," he laughed, "father of the year."

"Kiba," standing a few feet behind him, the Akimichi man, Choji warned his fellow Leaf-nin. "Come on," he urged, a nervous look on his face.

"I will not repeat myself," Sasuke advised, staring icily back at the man, not breaking eye contact.

"What? You wanna talk to her instead? She knows who I am," Kiba sneered, looking Sasuke up and down with a look of distaste, "You're practically a stranger to her." He let out a short laugh, "You're hardly her father." Turning again and stepping around Sasuke, he barely took two steps before he was stopped again. Appearing in front of him once more, Sasuke sported a red glare, grabbing Kiba roughly by the shoulder.

Over the course of a few seconds, the room erupted in movement and was stilled a moment later.

Grinding his teeth, Sasuke shot a deadly look at the Nara man, who was currently binding him with his shadow possession jutsu. Standing directly before him, and in between the two men was Naruto, glowing a bright yellow, each of his hands grabbing the fabric of either man's shirt.

"This is fucking ridiculous," Kiba growled as he was held immobile by Choji's powerful grip. "You must be crazy Naruto, to let this guy back into the damn Village."

" _Quiet_ ," Naruto's voice held such power with it, even Sasuke found himself dropping his glare and focusing on the Hokage that stood before him. This man was a far cry from the idiotic buffoon that Sasuke had been teamed up with as a child.

"I don't care what you guys may think of each other; I don't care what  _any_  of you think about one another," he addressed the whole room, "but if we don't work together, then nothing will get done."

"He's a criminal," Kiba snapped, "and you're just going to let him walk around here as if he's one of us?"

"Sasuke's charges were dropped years ago," Shikamaru was more annoyed with the current situation than angered.

"Charges or no charges. That doesn't matter. He's a murderer, and a traitor to the village. And you're going to let him hang around Katahana? I don't give a damn if he's her father. That's not a good idea!"

"Kiba! Enough," Naruto's voice overpowered Kiba's. Glaring down on the ninja, he spoke slowly and loudly. "He is her father, so whether he wants a relationship with her or not is none of our concern. Nothing you say will change that. Now, if you want to remain a part of this mission, you better cooperate." He then turned to Sasuke, "That goes for you too, Sasuke. If you're going to help, you need to get along with everyone else—now I don't mean you have to be friends with everyone, but you need to control yourself."

Sasuke glared, "I have plenty of self-control," he snapped.

"Wait, he's part of the mission, too?" The Inuzuka yelled in disbelief.

"Yes," Naruto sternly addressed Kiba once more. "And I'm going to assume that it won't be a problem. Cause if it is, then I'll just have to assemble a new team." He glared at each man before taking a deep breath and letting his chakra dissipate. "Now, tomorrow we're going to meet here again, at the same time. Then we'll go over our next step: heading out to search for Sakura once more."

As Naruto stepped away from the two, both Shikamaru as well as Chouji released their holds on the two feuding men. The two did not stop glaring at one another, although they did stand still.

"Hopefully we'll have a group put together and sent out within the next few days. We have no time to waste." With a wave of his hand, Naruto lazily dismissed the ninja, rubbing a spot next to his right temple, as if trying to ward off a headache.

Turning on his heel, Sasuke headed straight for the door, the last thing he heard before he entered the hallway being Kiba making another snarky comment.

"This is a bad idea," he mumbled to someone behind Sasuke's back.

Working to keep his temper under control he stopped in the doorway of the room he had left only a little while before. And upon looking into the room, his anger immediately faded away.

"Hi dad!"

The dark haired girl currently stood on the couch, waving at him eagerly. In front of her, sitting on the floor, Kakashi sat, leaning his back against the couch. In his lap sat the toddler who was currently in a hysterical fit of laughter.

Sasuke stared at Kakashi with a blank look on his face. His silence not due to his quiet demeanor, but due to the fact that he was literally at a loss for words.

"We gave Kakashi-san a make-over!" Katahana giggled, covering her mouth.

"Kaka pretty!" The toddler screeched, laughing loudly. Sasuke winced at the noise; that was Naruto's son alright.

Kakashi sat, looking up at Sasuke with tired distress. His hair was tied up in every direction with bows, ties, and various ribbons.

"You look ridiculous."

"Shh!" Katahana held a finger in front of her lips, shushing her father. "It's okay Kaka-san, you look wonderful I promise!" she said, trying hard to contain herself as she spoke to the man. "My dad is just jealous that he doesn't look as nice as you do."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and walked into the room, approaching the couch.

Kakashi looked up at him, "I take it the meeting is over?"

He nodded once, crossing his arms across the chest and raising his eyebrow at his old sensei. He may not have been on good terms with the man, but he had to hand it to him: he had an incredible amount of patience to sit by as the two children tormented him.

"Seems a little early?"

"There was," Sasuke paused, breaking eye contact, "an… issue." He looked at Katahana, who was currently adjusting a bow in Kakashi's silver hair.

"Hm. Well I'm assuming it wasn't too much of a problem."

"And why do you say that?"

"Because you don't look like you've been in a fight."

"Looks can be deceiving," Sasuke muttered under his breath, causing Kakashi to sigh. As he felt a tugging on his arm, he turned his attention back towards Katahana, who was gripping his hand tightly.

"Sit," she insisted, a stern look on her face, pulling once more. Grimacing, not enjoying having his arm yanked on, Sasuke gave in, sitting himself on the couch beside her. "Do you want a make-over, too?"

Sasuke almost stood right back up as she asked him, but instead he held his position. "No." He couldn't see it, but he could hear the sound of Kakashi chuckling to himself. He glared at the back of the ninja's silver head. "Why are you laughing?"

The older man shook his head, a loose tie falling from his hair to the ground beside him. "It's nothing."

"What's going on in here?" Naruto asked from the doorway. But he'd taken no more than two steps into the room before he paused, stared at Kakashi with a blank expression, and erupted in howling laughter. Hinata walked in the room behind him, glancing at Kakashi and letting out her own small laugh.

"I'll take him off your hands now," she said to the man as she leaned down to lift the child out of his lap. "Thank you," she gave him an apologetic smile as she glanced at the state his hair was in.

"Don't mention it," he closed his eye, smiling up at the young woman.

"You," Naruto struggled to speak through his laughter, "look  _ridiculous_!" He exclaimed, pointing a finger at Kakashi as he tried to remain upright.

"Yes, yes, Sasuke already told me."

"Oy, are you getting your hair done next?" Naruto asked Sasuke, still laughing.

"Definitely not."

"I can do your hair too, if you'd like Naruto-san," Katahana said, glancing over to him, a ribbon in each of her hands.

He held his hands up in front of him, his laughter turning nervous. "No thanks, uh, maybe next time."

"I'll remember that!" she said, putting her hands on her hips and sitting back down on the couch beside Sasuke. Letting out a long yawn, the girl stretched her arms over her head. "I'm tired."

"It's almost bedtime," Hinata said softly, walking over to the couch and extending her free hand. The dark-haired child rubbed an eye with a tiny fist before grabbing a hold of the Hyuuga's hand. They had just begun to make their way towards the door when Ino appeared in the doorway.

"Hey there," she said as she leaned against the doorframe, smiling down at the child, "you ready to go?" The little girl nodded as she let go of Hinata's hand and instead grabbed hold of Ino's. "I'll take her back," the Yamanaka said to the few occupants of the room. Her eyes landed on Sasuke's sitting form, staring at him for a quick second. She then looked back down at the child, "Say goodnight."

Katahana turned back into the room, waving a tired hand at everyone, "Goodnight," she said tiredly. The blonde woman then led the sleepy child out of the room and into the hall.

"Wait, I forgot something!" They heard her urgent statement a few seconds later from down the hall. As quickly as she'd left, she ran back into the room and right up to the couch.

Sasuke watched as the child stood before him, her hands gripping the hem of her shirt nervously. Before he could ask her what she wanted, she sprung herself forward, wrapping her tiny arms around his torso. Once again left speechless and stunned from another one of her sudden embraces, he tried to—yet again—ignore the stares from the other occupants of the room as he anxiously returned her hug.

"Goodnight dad," he heard her mumble into his shirt. Then without another word, she scurried back out into the hallway, to a shocked and waiting Ino.

"I'm going to head home too," Hinata said, sensing the awkward tension in the room. She walked up to Naruto, giving him a quick peck on the cheek, "I'll see you later." And with a smile directed toward the other two men in the room, she turned and left as well, the young boy already starting to fall asleep in her arms.

Sasuke couldn't stop staring at his hands before him, resting in his lap, palms facing upward. He was not an emotional person. He did not like displays of affection. He could count the amount of people he'd ever hugged in his entire life on one hand. It was rare when something took him so off-guard where he didn't know how to immediately respond. And to top it all off, he wasn't particularly a fan of children either.

But when it came to this small girl—his  _daughter_ —he didn't know how to feel. He wasn't even sure if he was responding correctly to the child's questions and embraces. An uneasy feeling began to settle in his stomach; he had no idea how to handle emotional situations, let alone be the father to a seemingly over-affectionate girl.

"I'm assuming she's going back to the hospital?" Kakashi's question brought Sasuke out of his thoughts. The older man backed himself up off the floor and onto the couch beside Sasuke, lazily pulling bows and ribbons out of his hair.

Naruto grimaced, "She'll have to stay there until we figure out what to do next. We already have all the hospital staff keeping a tight lip about all this. We can't have the village know that she's back here."

Kakashi nodded in understanding, "So we need to find somewhere that she won't be found for her to stay."

"That's just one of the things we're trying to figure out."

"Can't you guys just keep her here, in the village?" Sasuke asked, chiming into the conversation. "I can't think of anywhere safer for her to be."

"Trust me Sasuke, I want to. I mean I really,  _really_  want to." Naruto ran a hand through his blonde, messy hair. "I want nothing more than to keep her here where I can personally look after her. But," he sighed, "as Hokage I need to do what's best for the village. And with her being here, once people find out she's back, the village will start being attacked again."

"So you're just going to send her off?" Sasuke asked, almost angry.

"The Kazekage has already agreed to help," Kakashi said, trying to placate the Uchiha. "Sending her to Suna is our best bet at this point."

"The real challenge is simply getting her there, undetected." Naruto walked over to a table on the side of the room, pulling a chair out and sitting in it, facing the two with a thoughtful expression on his face. "In the next couple days we need to assemble a team to transport her there."

"Put me on that team," Sasuke demanded sternly.

"That wouldn't be wise," Kakashi spoke apologetically. "You were the last person that any of those men spotted her with. Putting you both together while travelling will just make it that much easier to be identified and tracked down."

"I thought you were helping us with locating Sakura?" Naruto inquired earnestly. At this statement Kakashi glanced at Sasuke, seemingly surprised at the revelation.

"I am," Sasuke growled.

"You can't do both, Sasuke," Naruto smiled at him. "Look, we're going to make sure we get a good, solid team put together to transport her. And how about this: I won't make any team official until you give your approval. Sound good?"

Rubbing the back of his neck tiredly, Sasuke knew that the offer was the best one he would get. He nodded once, finally deciding to let Naruto handle the situation fully.

"So, Sasuke," Kakashi said, the tone in his voice now much more upbeat, "what've you been up to for the past few years?"

The dark-haired man glared at his old teacher. "Nothing," he spoke bluntly. He wasn't lying either.

"Now that you know about her, what do you think of Katahana?"

Swallowing the lump in his throat that always decided to appear when he thought of the child, he thought to himself quietly. "She's very… affectionate." He said, finally finding the right words. "Too trusting," he added, his voice concerned.

"She's a lot like Sakura," Kakashi chuckled lightly. "She always has good intentions, and she's very sweet, but also extremely naïve."

"Is she like that with everyone?"

"No, not really. Only if she feels comfortable around them."

Sasuke tried to ignore the vague sense of gratification he felt at those words. That meant that he was one of the few people she was comfortable around. That made him special to her.

"She's very smart," Naruto added, "especially for her age. And she can throw a kunai with unbelievable accuracy," he grinned widely.

"She wants to be a ninja. I think Sakura was finally going to put her in the academy this fall."

Naruto laughed, "Yeah after I convinced her!" Sasuke looked at the two men, slightly confused. Noting his expression, Naruto explained. "Sakura used to be completely against Katahana ever becoming a ninja."

"What? Why?"

"Sakura has always been very overprotective of her. Always insisting that it was 'too dangerous' for her."

"Naruto called her a hypocrite once and she broke his nose," Kakashi mused, grinning beneath his mask.

"Yeah whatever," Naruto glared at Kakashi. "She really likes you a lot though, Sasuke. I've never seen her attach herself to someone so quickly."

"It's…" he trailed off, not able to find the right words to fit his situation.

"Strange, huh?" Naruto grinned. "It's alright, I'm sure you'll adjust eventually. She's a pretty independent kid so she's really easy to take care of."

Trying to avoid the thought of potentially taking care of the girl as her father, Sasuke stood up, prepared to separate himself from the entire conversation. Walking towards the door, he paused, realizing he didn't know how to get out of these rock-enclosed series of rooms. Cursing himself mentally, he waited by the doorway, not saying anything.

Kakashi and Naruto shared a look before they both stood up as well. "I'll take you back," he said to Sasuke, answering his unspoken question. "We're scheduled to meet back here tomorrow. You don't necessarily have to come along, but if you want to—"

"I'm going."

"Alright," Naruto said, a little put off by Sasuke's bitter tone.

The former Team 7 members said nothing more to each other before they all departed from the room, and ultimately from the mountainside base as well. After arriving back at the hospital, Sasuke wordlessly walked away from Naruto, escorting himself inside and finding his own way back to his room.

Closing the door behind him, he turned off the light, kicked off his shoes, threw the heavy cloak on a table in the corner of the room, and unceremoniously climbed into the bed.

This had definitely not been an ordinary week for Sasuke. He smirked dryly to himself, face down in his pillow, as he thought about it. The one time—the  _only_  time—he ever decided to take in a street kid, it ended up being his missing daughter who he'd never once known about. But he couldn't even bring himself to be surprised at the circumstances surrounding these events.

He had been thinking about how boring his life had become these past few years, and he'd been secretly hoping for something to appear and make his life just a little bit more interesting, a bit more exciting.

Maybe he should have specified in these thoughts just  _how_   _much_ excitement he was really looking for…


	12. Chapter 12

After arriving back at the hospital the next night, Sasuke did not return immediately to his room. Instead he remained on the roof, looking out on the village around him, taking in the limited view that he had.

"How does it feel?" He hadn't even noticed when Naruto walked up beside him. "To be back?"

Sasuke shrugged, breathing in the cool summer night's air. "Everything is different."

"That'll happen with a place when you're gone for over a decade."

Sasuke let out a long breath. He couldn't argue with that.

In the middle of the night, Konoha couldn't have been more still. It was almost eerie, Sasuke thought, looking out upon the empty streets and at the closed shutters. Everyone was either at home, or asleep.

He hadn't slept peacefully in this village since he was a small child. Even though he was much older now, and the ghosts of his past were all but buried deep beneath the surface of his mind, he found himself unable to rest. He tried attributing it to the sudden appearance of his daughter, but he knew that it wasn't the full reason.

"She never stopped loving you."

Sasuke remained unmoving, still leaning over the edge of the roof, peering out into the distance at some unknown point. He'd known that this conversation would happen, and if he was being honest with himself—and with Naruto—he wasn't ready for it.

"Look," Naruto sighed, "I don't know what happened between the two of you during those last couple of weeks on the base all those years ago—well, I mean I have an  _idea_  of what happened. Since you two have a daughter and all…" Naruto shuddered visibly. "But whatever happened changed her completely."

Sasuke clenched and unclenched his fists, trying to keep himself composed and emotionally separated from the conversation. "I don't want to hear this right now, Naruto." They had other things to worry about. Things that were more important than past relationships.

"I'm not saying it was a bad change," Naruto said, trying to get his words in before Sasuke stormed off, "I'm just letting you know, she's different now."

"Different how?" Sasuke folded his arms across his chest. He still refused to even glance in the young Hokage's direction, instead opting to gaze out into the distance some more.

"She's… kinder now. Not that she wasn't before," he laughed once, "but she doesn't get worked up over things as easily. She's much more easy going."

"Says the man who got punched in the face for criticizing her."

The blonde laughed nervously, "I kind of deserved that. She doesn't do things like that often anymore, if at all. I know for a fact that the only reason she did that was because she thought I was going to endanger Katahana by teaching her a jutsu or two. Like I said before, Sakura's  _very_  overprotective of her."

"Well, she's being endangered right now, because of the fact that I'm her damn father," Sasuke spat bitterly. "She  _needs_  to learn some things to protect herself."

"Don't worry," Naruto assured quickly, "Like I said, I got Sakura to change her mind. It was actually just before the attacks began when I started teaching her a few tricks." He grinned at Sasuke, "She's better at making shadow clones than most chunin I know."

Sasuke finally turned to face Naruto, a slight look of surprise on his face. "She's 7, right?"

Naruto's grin only got wider as he nodded, pleased that Sasuke was finally looking him in the eye. "She's got talent, Sasuke. You should be proud."

Looking away, the Uchiha tried to distract himself from the emotions he was trying so hard to ignore. He couldn't avoid these types of conversations with his old comrades, but he could avoid confronting his own emotions about it all.

He'd deal with it when he needed to. Right now, he had other things to worry about—feelings and emotions could wait.

He did allow himself one small smile, doing as Naruto said, and taking some pride in his child. Meeting Naruto's eyes again, he looked away once more. "Thank you."

Before Naruto could respond, the sound of a rapidly approaching body put the two ninja on alert.

"Naruto!" The voice called as the incoming ninja jumped from a neighboring roof to the roof of the hospital. "Naruto!" A boy, no older than 18, ran up to the Hokage with a paper in his hands and smile on his face. Sasuke couldn't help but slightly recognize the boy. Pausing for a moment to catch his breath he held up a hand, signaling them to wait a moment.

"What? What's going on?"

"We," he paused, panting, "we got a message," he handed the slightly crumbled paper over to Naruto, "It's," he inhaled deeply, "it's from Tenten."

"What? Is everything alright?"

"No, no everything is fine," the boy grinned widely, a blue scarf hanging from his shoulders, "she was travelling back home with her genin from a mission when she overheard a couple of men talking. They were saying—or complaining, I guess—about how they had to help a couple of women travel like twenty or thirty miles or something like that. I guess Tenten was just mindlessly listening in but then they mentioned a 'pink haired woman'."

Eyes widening, Naruto lifted the paper, studying it closely as he read.

"When she heard that she immediately stopped them and asked them what they were talking about, and it took her a couple minutes to get them to tell her. But," he took another deep breath, still grinning, "they were definitely talking about Sakura."

Reading the entire message twice, eyes widening as he did so, he looked over the sheet at the boy with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth.

"Boss," he let out an excited laugh, "we have a good idea where Sakura might be."

Naruto's expression was still shocked as he gaped from the message, to the young man, and back to the message again. "I need you to alert Shikamaru and tell him everything you just told me," he said suddenly, snapping out of his haze, "and give him this, too."

"He already knows, Boss. He's the one who sent me here to find you! And he's already getting the team together so he's got it all covered."

"Well, lead the way Konohamaru!" Naruto grinned finally, glancing over to Sasuke. "You coming?"

The Uchiha, who had been listening carefully to the two's conversation, nodded once, a determined look overtaking the shocked one he'd held on his face. "Let's go."

The three ninja arrived at the large dome-shaped building, quickly making their way through the doors and down a long hallway. As they turned a corner, Nara Shikamaru stood at the end of another hallway, currently giving instructions to some ninja. Noting their arrival, he quickly dismissed the Leaf-nin and turned toward them.

"On the northern border of Wind Country, that's where she was last seen," he said quickly, not bothering with pleasantries or to wait for them to question him. He already knew what needed to be said. "You get the final decision with this, but I strongly advise we move the departure time from two days from now, to this morning." He gave Naruto a severe look, "This is the only lead we've gotten in weeks. We can't let this go."

The blonde Hokage nodded, completely in agreement with the strategist. "Alert both teams," he said, walking past the Nara man and into his office, "We can have them travel together until they reach the borders of the Fire and Wind countries. From there, team one will take the route we've given them to Suna, and team two will go North, toward the northern border of Wind country."

"I'll be downstairs," Shikamaru said, "as people arrive send them down to my office. I'll start debriefing them when they get there." Turning toward Sasuke he raised an eyebrow, "You ready?"

The dark-haired man looked toward the Hokage, still shocked at the sudden revelation. The two locked eyes for a long moment, as if silently exchanging words.

Naruto frowned slightly, clenching a fist,  _Bring her home._

Sasuke took in a steady breath and nodded toward him,  _I will_.

Turning and facing the Nara man, Sasuke followed closely behind him as they made their way towards the stairwell.

There would be no time for him to sleep tonight. Even if he had the opportunity to, he would never be able to calm his mind and to bring his body to a peaceful state. He was too tense, too anxious. They were only a couple days away from finding Sakura—hopefully alive and well.

No, of course he couldn't sleep. There was no time to waste.

* * *

Just before the sun rose over the horizon, a group of ninja stood by the entrance to the village, preparing themselves for their journey.

Sasuke stood at the edge of the group, refusing to acknowledge or converse with any of his 'teammates'. Instead he chose to stare out into the forest, watching the morning fog disperse through the trees. To his left stood the other three members of their team. Nara Shikamaru was leaning against the side of the large gate, talking quietly to the other two members of the team.

Sasuke would never tell him, but he was glad that the man was a part of this team. Out of all the people that Sasuke knew back when he was a genin in the village, Shikamaru was one of the few people whose opinions and ideas he actually agreed with; to an extent that is. He respected the man though, appreciating his intellect and the fact that he too annoying.

In front of the shadow jutsu user, was a small girl with dark brown hair and white eyes. He'd learned the night before that the Hyuuga was none other than Hinata's younger sister. He couldn't remember her name, but he wasn't one to ask, so he instead stood by, idly waiting for someone to address her.

Next to the Hyuuga was Rock Lee, who stood by restlessly looking into the village, waiting for the rest of the other team to arrive. Sasuke did not care for the man at all, but he didn't actively dislike him. He found him immensely annoying and only figured that he'd be able to tolerate him due to the fact that he was a damn good ninja.

The other team stood a few feet away from Sasuke's team, all of them seeming overly-anxious. The Uchiha could understand their nerves; it would seem that transporting Katahana from village to village was an extremely dangerous task. Trying to ignore the frustration that was festering inside him over the fact that he couldn't go with the child, he tried to come off as detached from the situation as possible.

The ex-Root member, Sai, stood still as he waited to depart with his team, a solemn expression on his face. Sasuke had only ever had one conversation with the man, if you could even count their first encounter as a 'conversation'. The first time they'd met was back when Sai, along with Naruto, Sakura, and the ANBU member whose name Sasuke couldn't remember, tried talking to him about 'bonds' and returning to the village.

But of course that only lead into a quick fight where Sasuke tried to kill almost all of them. He inwardly flinched as he recalled the memory, a sinking feeling making itself known in the pit of his stomach.

He knew nothing about the man other than his unique, and admittedly impressive, jutsu. Even now, he noted the large scroll strapped to the pale man's back.

Standing beside him was Ino, who was waiting impatiently—even going so far as to tap her foot, glaring out into the village. Beside her was Kiba, who leaned against his dog, talking to Ino in a low voice, sending Sasuke a glare every now and then.

Sasuke could only be grateful that the man wasn't on the same team as he was; although he wasn't happy about the fact that the Inuzuka got to travel with Katahana and he couldn't. He could only silently hope that the ninja would take all the anger and frustration that Sasuke was sure he felt towards him, and put it towards the mission.

Both teams currently stood by, waiting for the final two people to arrive so they'd be able to depart. Taking note of the sky lightening more and more with each passing minute, Sasuke knew that they'd be leaving dangerously close to sunrise, and wondered where the hell they could be.

But, fashionably late as always, the last member of the transport team arrived, toting a small girl in his arms, being followed by none other than Naruto himself. Kakashi held the tiny child, who was currently wrapped tightly in a small cloak, and threw an additional blanket over her as he halted his movements. With tired eyes the child lifted her head up off of his chest groggily, taking in her surroundings.

"It's so early," she mumbled, letting her head flop back down on Kakashi's chest. "I'm  _tired._ "

"I know," Naruto said quietly as he walked up to her, leaning toward her and offering her an apologetic smile. "But we're going to try and get you to Suna very soon."

"Can I sleep?" she whined in a tired voice, "I don't think I can run right now."

Naruto let out a soft laugh and lifted the hood back up over her head, "You can sleep all you'd like."

"Okay," she mumbled once more, grabbing onto the front of Kakashi's vest with one hand.

With their arrival, both of the teams gathered around the two men, readily waiting to depart. Naruto nodded once at Shikamaru, a serious yet somehow solemn expression on his face. "Alright, you guys know what to do. Travel west together until you start approaching the Fire Country border, then split up." He looked from Shikamaru to Kakashi, silently acknowledging the two team captains, "Because of the serious nature of these missions, I want you each to send a message back to Konoha twice a day. Once at sunrise and once at sunset."

"Remember," Shikamaru chimed in, addressing both teams, "don't engage anyone if approached. Don't start confrontation but always be prepared for it."

"Shika-san," Katahana called quietly from her place in Kakashi's arms, "are you going to find my mom?"

"Yes we are," he said, working hard to send a small smile her way. Sasuke could only see him struggling with the semi-comforting expression.

Even with all the information they'd received over the course of the past few hours, and even with all the hope it brought along, they were all still uneasy with their mission. It was evident on everyone's face; they didn't honestly know whether they'd be retrieving Sakura, or just her body.

"Where's my dad?" the girl asked, struggling to pull her large hood back and find her newly-introduced father. "Dad?"

Sasuke didn't honestly think he'd ever get used to hearing someone call him that. It sounded so foreign to his ears. Nevertheless, with heavy feet he responded, making his way over to Kakashi slowly. As he walked, he couldn't help but notice Kiba's glare and had to suppress the urge to flip off the man, instead trying to take at least some pride in the fact that Katahana had asked for  _him._

The little girl looked up at his approaching form with tired eyes and grinned widely, despite her obvious exhaustion. "After you find mom, and after the bad guys leave me alone, I have lots of things to show you," she said, smiling almost shyly, halfway hiding her face in Kakashi's chest. "Like my room and my favorite tree and we can even go get food together and stuff like that if you want to."

Sasuke didn't know how to reply, so for a long moment he didn't. He did offer her some minor reassurance by giving her a slight half-smile, nodding once. Katahana seemed content with the reply and grinned widely once more before a yawn interrupted her mild excitement. "Wake me when it's time to eat," she mumbled, letting her heavy eyelids close once more as she rested against the elder jounin.

With a light chuckle, Naruto clapped Sasuke on the shoulder, catching the Uchiha off guard and earning him a swift glare. "Time to go you guys," he said, ignoring the man's glower.

"Are you going to be holding her like that the whole time?" Ino asked as Kakashi walked past her.

"Only until she wakes up and gets antsy," he said with quiet amusement.

"Sasuke," Naruto called, stopping the man as he too had begun to follow their old sensei. Turning to face his old friend for what very well could be the last time, he decided that he at least owed Naruto his attention. "Please do whatever it takes to find her," he said, finally allowing his anguish show slightly. The Hokage looked at him with such intense sadness, that even he felt a dull pain pinch at his stomach. "It not for any of us, then for Katahana. She loves Sakura more than anything in this entire world." Naruto let his eyes fall to the ground as he shook his head dejectedly, "It would destroy her if Sakura died."

He knew that what Naruto said was entirely true. Being a child thrown into a world where people attack and try and kill you and your family on a regular basis was sure to take an enormous toll. Sasuke was admittedly waiting very nervously for Katahana to finally snap and break down. Impressively enough, the girl was showing more perseverance than he was expecting out of the 7-year-old.

The death of Sakura would surely drive her into near insanity. Having your mother murdered due to the fact that crazed strangers wanted to get to you would no doubt place the seed of guilt into your mind. It would make her just as demented as the murder of his clan had made him.

With this thought, his resolve intensified considerably, locking eyes with Naruto. He would never allow his child to be subjected to the same pain that he'd been forced to endure. Just the thought of such a thing made his blood boil.

"I'll be back with both of them," he vowed, "I'll bring them back safe and sound or I'll die trying."

Naruto did not smile, give him any words of encouragement, or wish him luck; all the man did was reach forward and wrap Sasuke in an abrupt embrace. Not waiting for or even expecting Sasuke to return the hug, Naruto released him and nodded at him. He had Sasuke's word—it was all he needed to put his utmost trust in the former Leaf-nin.

"I'll see you all again soon," Naruto said to the entire group on ninja, allowing them to prepare themselves for their departure before uttering his last words of advice. "Be careful."

Under a minute later, eight ninja, one hound, and one child were all heading out of the village at top-speed, all of them with their thoughts focused on one thing: their mission.

It was a game of hide and seek in its own right. Hide the child. Find her mother. And once both tasks were completed, Sasuke had already given himself another mission to fulfill.

To find whoever was targeting his daughter, and to kill them.

And once Sasuke set his mind on something, it was damn near impossible to deter him from his objective. Everyone who'd ever known him knew that. His determination was difficult to halt.

Yet, that wasn't always a good thing.

 


	13. Chapter 13

The first time the ninja stopped was at mid-day. Thirst had become a bit too hard to ignore, and they chose to stop for a short amount of time, drink some water, and get a little food in their stomachs. Tensions ran high and no one was much for conversation at the present time.

Well.

No one except a certain 7-year-old.

She'd awoken fully a couple hours before, but had still remained in Kakashi's arms for the duration of their travelling. And after immediately waking, she'd tried to take off the cloak, complaining about the heat after being conscious for no more than 30 seconds.

It was an understandable complaint, Sasuke supposed, as the heavy summer heat was all but suffocating them in their own clothes. After Katahana had wriggled her way out of her cloak—quite a feat while still managing to keep on arm wrapped around Kakashi's neck as he moved—a few others did the same, not knowing why they hadn't done so sooner.

"Aren't you hot?"

Sasuke peered up at the girl from his spot on the ground. He sat off to the side, under the shade of a low-hanging tree, sharpening a couple of kunai. He'd been the only one so far who still wore his heavy cloak. After acknowledging her with a look, he continued his task.

" _Hello_?" she called a little too loudly, holding out the word much longer than necessary, tilting her head to the side as she watched Sasuke work.

"Hm?" he didn't lift his eyes. But he did notice her lean toward him slightly, her hands on her hips.

"Ewww," she giggled, pinching her nose with her fingers. "See? You smell 'cause you're all sweaty."

Sasuke faultered in his movements, almost slicing a finger open in the process. Frowning he looked up at the child who stood before him, grinning mischievously.

"You stink," she said once more, waving a hand in front of her nose exaggeratedly. "You should probably take that off." As she poked his shoulder with a pointed finger, he couldn't help but watch as one of his teammates stared in shocked, jaw dropped.

It was the taijustu expert, Rock Lee—he'd just finished packing his own cloak into his bag when he looked up and watched the child poke him.

Sasuke was about to glare at the man before he realized that he'd never seen the two interact before. In fact, most of the ninja surrounding him hadn't seen him speak to Katahana once. They were probably all paying close attention to the two—although none of them being very obvious about it (except for Lee that is).

He grimly wondered if they were afraid of something happening to her while in his presence. A few of them hadn't made it a secret that he still wasn't welcome. They still saw him as a criminal after all these years, but Sasuke couldn't be mad about that. He was the one who brought it all upon himself.

Revenge will do crazy things to a person.

"Dad," she called in a sing-song voice.

"I heard you the first time," he muttered, placing his kunai on the ground and shrugging his cloak off of his shoulders. By the time he'd stored it away securely in his pack, he looked up to see a canteen of water inches from his face. Tiny fingers held it out to him, waiting for him to take it.

"Here," she just about pushed it into his hands. Taking a seat next to him, Sasuke glanced at her out of the corner of his eye before taking a few sips of water. He said nothing when she picked up his kunai; in fact he was even a little bit curious.

"I hear you're good with kunai," he said, gesturing to the weapon she now held in her hands.

She shrugged, "I'm okay."

"Show me."

Hopping up onto her feet, giddy at the request, she turned in a full circle, as if looking for something in the small opening in the woods the teams currently resided in. Then she threw the kunai to their right, lodging it into the trunk of a tree about 20 feet away.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, saying nothing. Well. It wasn't  _that_  impressive.

"You're not looking close enough," she said to him as she turned around and faced him, hands on her hips. No doubt she'd seen his aloof expression. "Look!"

Looking toward the tree he struggled to see what she was talking about. It wasn't until she groaned and grabbed his hand, trying to pull him to his feet, when he actually got up and walked over to it.

Pinned between the kunai and the rough bark of the tree was a leaf, pierced directly through its center.

Okay, now Sasuke was impressed. Turning to look down at the girl who stood beside him grinning up at him, he looked back to the tree and pulled the knife out of its trunk. He then plucked off the leaf from the blade and handed it back down to her once again.

"Again," he said curtly. He wanted to see whether or not that had been luck, or actual skill.

Grinning at him, a sly expression on his face, she turned around completely, pausing for a moment, before throwing the kunai down the middle of the clearing, imbedding it in another tree about 40 feet away.

"Hey!" Ino called, frowning toward the pair, "Be careful with that Katahana," she scolded. The knife had flown directly in front of her face, missing the tip of her nose only barely. Sai, who stood by her, let out a light laugh at the child's antics.

"Sorry! It won't happen again," she called back sheepishly before grabbing Sasuke's hand again, pulling him after her. After walking directly through the rest of the team, awkwardly trying to avoid the eyes of his teammates, he followed the child up to the next tree.

Eyes widening, surprisingly impressed, Sasuke pulled the kunai out once more; and once again, she'd caught a falling leaf and pinned it against the tree.

"So, whatcha think?" she asked, arms behind her as she bounced excitedly. Sasuke had to resist the urge to let out a laugh. She  _knew_  she was good, she had just played the modesty card, wanting for him to ask her so she could show him what she could do.

"You're just 'okay'?" he raised an eyebrow.

She shrugged, repressing a giggle, "Beginner's luck?" she said, hands covering her mouth.

"Yeah right," he said, finally allowing himself a smirk.

He'd been dreadful with kunai at that age, tripping and falling over his own two feet while trying to hit targets. He'd been clumsy as a young child, hardly capable of performing any sort of jutsu. And here was his daughter, hitting targets at the skill level of someone twice her age. Not only was he impressed, he was proud.

"Alright," he heard the voice of Shikamaru speak up across the clearing, "let's move out everyone."

After putting his pack back on, he looked to his side to see Katahana standing next to him, toting her own small backpack as well. He waited for her to walk back over to Kakashi, who stood not too far away, waiting for everyone to be ready before departing once more. But when she did not budge, instead remaining by his side, digging her heel into the dirt, he spoke up.

"You're not supposed to be running are you?" They'd been instructed to ensure that they arrived at their respective destinations as quickly as possible, meaning they couldn't risk being slowed down by the child.

Katahana shook her head, watching the ground as her foot kicked up some dirt. "I was just wondering…" she mumbled the last of her words, making it impossible for Sasuke to decipher what she was trying to say.

"I can't understand you."

"I was wondering if you'd carry me," she said quietly, still not meeting his eyes. In the short amount of time that Sasuke had known his daughter, he had been used to her being loud, social, and outspoken. This sudden… shyness caught him off guard a bit.

Was she afraid that he'd say no?

A series of memories flickered through his mind at that exact moment—of him at a young age, trying hard to be acknowledged by his own father, but only ever feeling the sting of rejection.

"Okay," he responded immediately. He didn't want her to feel uncomfortable around him, or afraid to ask him for something. Sasuke wasn't completely sure what 'being a father' actually entailed, but he had a good idea of what  _not_  to do; so at least he had a place to start.

She finally looked up at him, smiling to herself, and lifted her arms up to him.

Reaching down slightly, he carefully lifted her into his arms, watching as she wrapped one arm around his neck and grabbed a handful of the front of his shirt with the other. She then rested her head against his chest and let out a quiet sigh.

The knot in his throat that had been bugging him ever since he met her, made an appearance at that moment. Securing his hold on her, he walked over to the rest of the team, trying to ignore the stares. The Leaf nin may have been discreetly watching them before, but now all eyes were trained on the two.

He met only Shikamaru's eyes, who nodded once back at the Uchiha before addressing everyone else.

"Let's go."

And off they went again, running at full speed through the trees. They had until the following morning until they reached their first destination. The point where the two groups would finally split and head in their own separate directions.

Sasuke unconsciously held Katahana tighter as his mind wandered to that thought. He'd be separated from her in under 24 hours. She'd go off with Kakashi, Ino, Kiba, and Sai, and hopefully they'd deliver her safely to Suna.

He tried not to let his mind dwell on the fact that there were people out there—dangerous people—who were trying to find her. All because of him. Since she carried the blood of the Uchiha through her veins, and ultimately the ability to awaken the sharingan, there were those who wanted to blind or kill her.

Glancing down at the girl he held in his arms, he watched her still face. Her eyes remained closed, and a soft smile rested gently on her face. Her long, black hair flew all around, some of it even hitting against Sasuke's face. But he did not mind.

The want to protect her surged through his body, and he cringed at the thought of sending her off. He wanted more than anything to be able to stay by her side, and to protect her with any means necessary, but he knew that he had a mission to complete.

But for the moment, moving through the forest in the mid-summer day's heat, he tried to take solace in knowing that he was there, with his daughter, who lay safe and sound in his arms.

* * *

Sasuke thought that since the day had passed calmly and uneventfully he would be able to get a couple hours of sleep. But instead he lay awake, as anxious and alert as ever. He hadn't even attempted to sleep; when there were criminals roaming the country, looking to kidnap your daughter, you didn't want to risk being caught off guard in any way. There was too much at stake.

He'd been absentmindedly running his hand softly through Katahana's hair as he stared off into the darkness of the thick forest. The child was using his leg as a pillow, and was curled up on the ground, draped in her thick cloak. Sleeping soundly, Sasuke watched as her tiny shoulders lifted and fell, ever-so-slightly, with every steady breath she took.

They'd stopped running a little over an hour ago and they would only remain in their spot for a few more hours. They wouldn't risk staying put any longer than that. Shikamaru had advised everyone to at least catch a couple hours of sleep, and a few of the ninja put together a quick shift system; some would sleep for two hours while the others kept watch, and then they'd switch after the time was up.

Sasuke had remained silent when they all laid down for their first shift, not really caring enough to involve himself. But Katahana, who had fallen asleep during the run, awoke when he stopped moving. She then wriggled herself out of his arms and, grabbing Sasuke's hand, pulled him down with her as she prepared to fall back asleep on the ground beneath them.

But a few minutes after she'd made herself somewhat comfortable, she was still awake, staring blankly at the base of the tree that Sasuke had chosen to lean against.

She had looked nervous, her foot fidgeting beneath her cloak as her tired eyes stared, her mind definitely wandering to places that Sasuke wasn't sure he wanted it to go. It wasn't until he recognized the look in her eyes as fear when he reached out and brushed a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

Eyes refocusing, she looked up at him silently, meeting his eyes with her own fearful ones.

Closing her eyes tight, she scooted her body closer to him, a deep frown covering her face. When he saw the first tear slide down the side of her face, he started to move his hand gently, carefully running his fingers through her hair.

He had known that she'd seemed much too calm and collected about the whole situation than she let show. She was scared—he saw that now. She may have portrayed an optimistic demeanor much like the one Naruto had, she may be just as talented as a low-class ninja, and she might have the social skills and intellect of someone much older than her, but in the end it did not matter.

She was still a 7-year-old child.

Katahana had fallen asleep a few minutes later, but Sasuke had not stopped his movements. His fingers still moved lightly through her dark hair, the comforting gesture continuing even as the child slept before him.

As his hand moved, he tried to remain completely alert to his surroundings, but he could not stop his mind from wandering. There was still the fact that his real mission was to find Sakura.

The main thing that he couldn't help but think about was whether or not she was even alive. Tenten's report had stated that the man had helped 'the pink haired woman' and her counterpart only a few days before her encounter with them. But the man, who Naruto referred to as Masaru, had spoken with mock-sadness—with his blade through Sasuke's chest—about how he didn't want to orphan Katahana. That would imply that Sakura would've been dead.

Trying to make sense of his thoughts, he leaned his head back against the tree, gazing up into the night sky.

There was a chance that Masaru had found Sakura after the two men had escorted her to a nearby village. Without a correct timeline of all the events that had taken place, they were left with multiple questions and concerns.

He'd been staring up into the sky, tracing the stars with his eyes, when he faintly heard someone take a seat to his left.

"You should get some sleep," Kakashi said quietly, sitting himself beside the Uchiha. "We're scheduled to head out in about 2 hours. You might as well get some rest while you can."

Sasuke looked at Kakashi for a moment before shaking his head and slowly looking away. "I couldn't sleep even if tried."

Kakashi nodded, understanding Sasuke's mindset. "You're worried."

Sasuke wanted to laugh coldly at Kakashi's statement, which had been spoken with a strange amount of delight. "No shit," he mumbled to himself, still running his fingers through Katahana's hair.

"Try not to take this the wrong way, but it's a nice thing to see," the elder ninja said with a light hint of humor. "I've haven't seen you show actual emotion like this since you were about 12 or so."

Sasuke remained silent for a few minutes, taking in Kakashi's statement. He was right, of course. When Sasuke had been a young child, he'd been as carefree and happy as any other kid his age. But then, Itachi had received a mission that changed everything.

By the age of 8, Sasuke had been transformed into a post-traumatic mess. He'd closed himself off from the world, emotionally numbing himself to the point where all he felt was hatred and anger. And much like his brother had instructed him to do, he allowed the hatred to build up inside him, until it began to eat away at his psyche.

It wasn't until he joined team 7 when things started to change. Being teamed up with Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura seemed at first to be something that would only hinder his training. He had to grow stronger, and being teamed up with two of his ridiculous classmates was something that he silently fumed over.

From the young age when he'd been left without a family, he'd been completely alone. No family, no friends, no one who would be there for him when he needed it. He'd grown to despise everyone; his classmates, the ninja in the village, and the villagers themselves. He viewed them as nothing but selfish wastes of space who knew nothing about pain.

Then, when he joined team 7, he started to realize that maybe—just maybe—people weren't so bad after all.

He had never wanted to admit it, but he'd not only made friends who he liked spending time with, but he was beginning to enjoy life again. And little by little, emotions started to reappear within him. He actually began to care about others once more and began to realize that maybe Konoha wasn't such a bad place to live.

He'd started to become happy with his life. That was until Orochimaru found him.

Sasuke allowed himself to sigh, removing his gaze from Katahana and looking up at the sky once more. "Things are different now."

Kakashi nodded his head in agreement, "You can say that again." He let out a light chuckle. "How have you been these past few years? Honestly?"

"Alright," he admitted quietly with a shrug. "I don't leave any sort of exciting life. I don't do much of anything really."

"I thought you'd been travelling all this time?"

"I used to. I've been in the same village for a couple years now. It's quiet there," his fingers still continued their movements in his daughter's hair. "I haven't done much travelling since."

"Finally settled down," Kakashi said, nodding quietly to himself.

"Not exactly," Sasuke glanced across the small clearing and took note of Lee and Ino waking Sai and Shikamaru, trading sleeping shifts he assumed. "I was getting pretty close to moving again."

"Where to?"

"Wherever." He shrugged indifferently, "I just wanted change."

"I'm sure this isn't the type of change you were expecting, huh?" Kakashi gestured to where Katahana lay with a nod of his head.

"Not in a million years," he muttered under his breath. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all."

"She's a wonderful kid," Kakashi said, smiling beneath his mask. "A wonderful girl with a big heart. She may not show it completely, but knowing who her father is had made her happier than I've seen her in years. Of course, at the same time, with Sakura missing, I've never seen her more heartbroken either." He folded his arms as he frowned. "It's tough to see her like this. She told me yesterday morning that she felt bad for being happy about meeting you. She said it made her feel guilty because Sakura is still out there."

"I'm going to find her," Sasuke said in a low voice, his expression darkening.

"Katahana's holding you to that. And so am I." He put a hand on his former student's shoulder. "I am going to get Hana to Suna safely if it's the last thing I'll do. I'll protect her with my life." His eyes locked onto Sasuke's as he spoke. "In turn, I'm expecting you to find Sakura and bring her to us, safe."

"You already have my word," Sasuke stared back, although his eyes held no anger—only sincerity.

"And you have mine." Kakashi squeezed his shoulder again before releasing him completely, standing himself up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try and get an hour or two of sleep. I suggest you  _try_ and do the same." Much emphasis put on the word 'try'.

He waited until the elder Jonin walked away and laid himself down a few feet away, before he leaned back fully, letting his head hit the hard tree behind him.

Sasuke didn't want to think. He wanted to turn off his mind and shut out the world and get a moment of peace to himself so that he could fully collect himself. After the past few days, his resolve was beginning to waiver. He needed to regroup and try and find some sort of mental stability with his situation before it began to eat at him.

The last thing he needed to do was to doubt his abilities and ultimately his ability to perform the mission at hand.

He needed to concentrate.

* * *

Hitting the ground, face first, Sasuke quickly lifted himself up on shaky arms, blinking rapidly to dislodge the dirt and dust that had caught itself in his eyes. Lifting his head he spit out a mouthful of blood before glaring up at his opponent before him.

"You'll have to do better than that, child." Orochimaru stood before him, taunting him. He'd been training under the man for just over 4 months. Which meant for Sasuke: 4 months of trying to withstand relentless beatings at the hands of the ex-Leaf nin and those who worked beneath him.

Four months of trying to survive.

"I'm not a child," he growled, wiping the blood leaking out of his mouth on the back of his hand before launching himself forward, back onto his feet, and toward the man. But just as soon as he'd lunged at his target, it dodged his weak attack.

As he was kicked in the side, he was thrown back down into the cold hard ground. He'd heard the sound of bones breaking as he landed—a sound that he was, unfortunately, becoming accustomed to while living under Orochimaru's careful watch.

"You're weak boy. Why are you so weak?"

Lifting himself up on shaky feet, he faced the man again, ignoring the searing pain in his side. Instead of charging once more, he stood in place, hands pressed together as he worked desperately to regain some chakra.

"I know why you're weak. You haven't let your hatred fully consume you yet."

Making a series of hand-signs, Sasuke blew a fireball directly in the face of the snake-sannin. But before the flames could even clear, he was knocked forward by another kick to his back.

"You need nothing more than hate,  _boy_. Until you release your useless bonds you hold, you will be weak."

Throwing a kunai behind him, Sasuke flipped himself forward and quickly turned to face him. Only to discover the large room empty before him. Checking all around him, eyes scanning every direction, he used his activated sharingan to try and see into the darker corners of the room.

A piercing scream suddenly filled the still darkness. Sasuke knew that scream anywhere.

"Sakura!" He couldn't stop himself from calling out her name as he desperately searched the room for her.

How? How had Orochimaru found her and brought her here? Wouldn't Kakashi-sensei and the others have stopped him? Damnit she was supposed to be in the village! Safe!

"The bonds make you weak."

At the sound of the voice behind him, Sasuke swung, kicking at the air behind him, glaring as Orochimaru swiftly dodged him.

"What are you doing to her? Let her go!"

"Do you want your revenge, boy?"

"Answer my question!" he screamed, swinging at the man with punches he could not land.

"Answer mine first."

"Yes," he spat out angrily, his fists still flying, "I'm going to get my damn revenge! But they have nothing to do with it."

"What do you care about more, your revenge or your friends?"

Sasuke stopped his attack and jumped backwards, only dodging a large shuriken by a few inches. Glaring into the darkness once more, he searched for his opponent.

"You must choose Sasuke."

"I already have!" he snapped, "I've chosen my revenge. I'm here aren't I?"

"Not good enough. You must focus entirely on your mission. If you don't, Itachi will never die."

"I'll kill him myself!"

"But what if your friends get in the way?" The taunt was quickly followed by another scream. The pained shout echoed throughout the room, bouncing off the walls and around Sasuke's head.

"Stop it!" Sasuke screamed, lunging once more only to be quickly thrown back again. As his skull smacked against the pavement beneath him, he clenched his eyes tight, trying to ignore the pain that was threatening to take over his senses completely.

"There will come a time where you will have to choose. If they stand in your way, what are you going to do?"

Sasuke did not reply as he lifted his head. With a shaky hand he touched the side of his head, feeling for the wound that was surely to be there. Looking down at his hand he found it covered in dark, thick blood; it was warm to the touch.

"If you really are dedicated to your mission, you'll dispose of them, and then continue with your revenge. But you'll never be able to do that if you still hold these childish attachments to them."

With a sudden feeling of nausea, Sasuke leaned forward and vomited all over the floor beneath him. Unable to support his weight any longer, his arms collapsed and he landed roughly next to the small pool of blood and vomit. Willing his eyes to refocus, he had to resist the urge to puke again when he finally fixated his gaze on something a few feet away.

Sakura's body lay there, eyes wide, breathing heavy, body beaten, broken, and bloody.

"Stop it!" Sasuke bellowed, "They don't matter anymore! So leave them out of this!"

Orochimaru looked down on him with a look of disappointment from where he stood next to Sakura's mangled body. "If they don't matter, then you shouldn't care if I do this."

With a lazy flick of the wrist, Orochimaru threw a kunai down at her body, landing it in her chest.

Sakura let out another scream, the sound shaking Sasuke down to the bones, before breaking down in a hysterical fit of sobs.

Watching as another kunai was stabbed through her shoulder, and a third at the base of her throat, her sobs began to die down quickly as her breathing grew shallow.

"No!" Sasuke screamed, trying to roll himself over so he could make his way over toward them. Orochimaru was killing her. The overwhelming urge to protect her—to  _save_  her—forced Sasuke onto his hands and knees.

"If you want your revenge, you need to sever your ties with them, Sasuke," the man hissed in a silky voice. "Unless you sever those ties, and quick, then Itachi will live forever." He taunted the boy by using his foot to knock Sakura's body a few feet closer to him.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Sasuke's scream hurt his throat as he spat at the sannin. Crawling towards her body, Sasuke stared down at her in horror; blood was flowing out of her neck at a terrifying rate. Lifting a hand toward her, he knew that there would be nothing he'd be able to do to stop the bleeding. "She needs medical attention! Where the hell is Kabuto!?"

"You have two options, Sasuke." Orochimaru circled the boy, leaning toward him as he spoke, even his mere presence taunting him. "You either sever your ties with them, or I'll kill them." Sasuke's head snapped up toward him as he looked at the man in horror. His sudden fury caused his curse mark to envelope him—black flames covered his body head to toe.

"As long as they are alive, they are a liability. You will always be vulnerable as long as you have these bonds."

Pausing in his motions, Orochimaru stopped circling the pair, looking down on the bleeding girl before him. In one fell swoop he used his foot to slam the kunai further into Sakura's throat before using the same foot to kick her into Sasuke, knocking the boy's arms out from under him.

Looking to the body laying beside him in horror, Sasuke let out an enraged scream before using the last of his strength to launch himself back up onto his feet

And before he could think of any sort of attack, he was kicked again, his arm snapping with a loud ' _crack_ ', his body falling back to the ground. His eyes immediately fell upon Sakura's face, inches away from his own. Eyes wide and staring out into nothing. Empty, lifeless eyes.

Frozen completely, Sasuke gave up, letting his body go completely limp as he forced down the urge to start screaming.

Then, out of nowhere, she disappeared, her form dissipating in a cloud of mist.

Sasuke could not stop staring at the spot where her body had been just seconds before. His eyes still fixed on where hers had just been. A mixture of fear, relief, and anger hit him.

It had been nothing more than an elaborate genjutsu.

"In order to become fully strong," Orochimaru spoke again waiting for Sasuke to gain control over his emotions. "The bonds must be broken. With all of your old friends and teammates."

On the verge of a panic attack, Sasuke closed his eyes and tried to pretend he was somewhere else.

Suddenly, a vision of Konoha filled his mind. The green grass and tall trees and the lively roads and marketplaces appeared before him as if he were actually there. Naruto's laughter was filling his ears and Sakura's smile was before his face as Kakashi stood before the group, shaking his head in mock-disapproval of their antics.

"They must either be killed."

Naruto ran off ahead of the group, being followed closely behind by Kakashi. Grabbing his hand, Sakura pulled him along, laughing at Naruto and smiling at Sasuke, and not once letting go of his hand. Wrapped in the scene, he gripped her hand tightly, too afraid to even think about releasing it.

"Or the bonds must be destroyed…"

Suddenly, the memory began to fade away. The laughter died down and the green grass soon grew gray. Naruto and Kakashi's images in the distance soon became fuzzy and difficult to see, and the noise of the village became muted. Scared, he looked to Sakura only to see her body begin to fly away with the wind as if her body was made of sand.

"… and they must become dead to you."

Sakura's hand crumbled to dust in his grip.

* * *

Sasuke didn't know when he'd fallen asleep, but when he was kicked awake—literally—by Ino, he was immediately on alert.

"Wake up," she said as she stopped kicking his leg. "We need to move, now." She spoke quickly and quietly, as if trying not to wake Katahana. All around them, he watched as his teammates hurriedly picked up their gear and prepared to depart.

"What happened?" Although he asked for an explanation he did not waste time by idly sitting by. As gently as possible he'd lifted Katahana into his arms as he stood, trying not to disrupt her slumber.

"Akamaru started getting restless so Sai and Kiba went to do a quick run on the perimeter," she explained as she assisted Sasuke in putting his pack on his back. "They found a small group of ninja who immediately attacked once they saw the leaf symbol on their heads. We need to get a move on, and quick."

"What about the ninja?"

"They've already been taken care of," she said, not explaining the situation beyond that. He figured they'd been killed after they'd attacked the two Leaf-nin. "But we're almost positive that they were part of an even-larger group, so we're leaving now."

"We're taking a bit of a detour," Shikamaru said, approaching the two, Kakashi following closely behind. "Kiba and Akamaru are going to go ahead of us as we travel, and Kakashi won't be too far behind them. Sasuke," Shikamaru looked at him, and immediately quieted his voice, taking note of the sleeping girl. "You're going to be in the center with Katahana. If anyone tries to attack, you'll be surrounded by us on all sides to keep them away from her." Sasuke nodded, carefully readjusting his hold on the child, remaining silent and still as she shifted slightly in her sleep.

"Sai is going to take to the sky," he continued, "And to your left and right will be Ino and Lee. I'll be a little bit behind you, and Hanabi will take up the rear."

"We need to leave now," a light, feminine voice spoke urgently, "there's already a group of people East of us, heading in this general direction at full speed." Sasuke watched as the younger Hyuuga sister—who he now knew as Hanabi—spoke quickly, byakugan activated.

"Alright, everyone. Let's go."

With their formation being put together in an impressive amount of time—Sasuke could've guessed it'd taken them no more than 8 seconds total—the group of Leaf-nin all departed from their spot at full speed. Now, anxiety and even a little bit of fear drove the ninja to move a bit faster than they had before.

Sasuke could feel the adrenaline causing his legs to move faster and his eyes to pick up more movements in the trees. Every branch that fell, every bird that flew, and every frog that jumped from one location to the next was caught by his sharingan.

He'd known that their mission would be dangerous, but now with the threat upon him, Sasuke could feel his anger rising, his determination increasing tenfold, as he ran through the trees in the dark of the night.

"Dad," a quiet voice called to him. Training his eyes on her face, which was currently peeking at him from the cover of both her small cloak  _and_  his larger one, his expression softened. "We're moving already?"

Confusion filling her tired voice, he nodded to her a few times before realizing that she couldn't see his face in the darkness. "Yes. We're… trying to make better timing."

"Where is everyone? I can't hear them."

"We're running in a formation, to… cover more space." He was trying hard to think of quick lies on the spot, trying to spare her the scary truth of their current situation.

"We're being chased aren't we?" she said sadly, curling up more in his arms.

"Try and go back to sleep," he urged, dodging the question. Biting the inside of his cheek he pushed his legs faster, as if he could put some distance between himself and the situation as a whole. He wanted to carry her not just away from the criminals who were currently in pursuit of them, but away from everything. Away from anything that would threaten her with any amount of harm. "I'll protect you. Just go back to sleep."

Hiding herself more in Sasuke's cloak, he felt as she grabbed hold of the front of his shirt tightly, pressing her face into it. He could not see it, but the sound of her soft crying soon reached his ears and the feeling of his tear-soaked shirt soon reached his skin.

His arms tightened around her as he ran through the forest. He  _dared_  anyone to even try to touch her. He wouldn't hesitate to kill each and every one of them.

"Katahana… it's…" he tried to steady his voice as best as he could, so his words would seem more comforting, "it's going to be okay."

Now if only he could convince himself of that.


	14. Chapter 14

Sasuke had watched while she attempted to repeat the jutsu, faltering with her hand signs.

"No, no like this," he said correcting her. He then performed the hand signs once more, only much slower this time, waiting for her to mimic his movements.

The child frowned at him before slowly repeating the hand signs. Then, holding her hand up in front of her she let out a long breath of air, producing a small ball of fire, no larger than her head.

"Ugh!" She let out a frustrated yell before kicking at the ground and crossing her arms.

The sun had risen not too long ago, and thankfully, the Leaf-nin had outrun the group of ninja that had been tailing them. They continued running three hours past the last time that either Hanabi or Kiba could detect any sign of enemy ninja. They needed to ensure that they were no longer being followed.

The group was currently stopped a few hours east of their destination. After being pursued the night before, it had thrown them off their original course. Kakashi had assured the rest of them that it shouldn't affect their estimated arrival times, informing everyone that he was familiar with these parts and knew a quick way to their checkpoint.

Needing a little bit more than a fifteen minute break, Shikamaru reluctantly allowed for a longer rest in order for everyone to catch their breath and get a little to eat.

And not long after they paused, when Katahana decided to start playing with Sasuke's kunai again, he got an idea.

He'd only explained how to perform the fireball jutsu ten minutes prior, but the child was already getting immensely frustrated with her apparent lack of ability to perform it.

"Don't get angry," he admonished. "That won't help you learn it."

"I'm not getting it though!"

"You're doing pretty good kid," Ino encouraged. A small crowd had gathered a little bit away from the duo, resting up as they watched the scene unfold before them.

"Ino is right Katahana-chan! You will master it in no time," Sasuke watched out of the corner of his eye as Lee cheered from the sideline. The man was just as energetic and optimistic as he remembered.

"I did the signs, I gathered my chakra, but it's not  _working_!"

"Katahana, you literally just learned it a few minutes ago," Ino said, frowning. "Don't be so hard on yourself."

"I want to do an actual great fireball though, like he can," she sulked as she spoke to Ino, pointing a finger at Sasuke as she complained.

"You can't rush it," Sasuke said, agreeing with the kunoichi. "It takes time, and it takes practice."

"Show me just  _one_  more time please?" she asked in a whiny voice, her lip jutting out in a pout.

Sighing, he rolled his eyes as he looked down at her, "Fine." He took a couple steps away from her. "This is the last time. After this, you just have to practice it on your own."

Performing the hand signs, almost lazily, he inhaled deeply and blew a huge fireball in the opposite direction of their clearing. The heat engulfed his body momentarily as he performed the jutsu, relishing in the comfortable feeling he felt. It had been the first jutsu he'd learned to perform successfully, and it was the easiest one for him to do.

"Let's not burn the forest down now," Kakashi called from the opposite end of the clearing. He was standing over by Shikamaru and Sai, probably discussing mission specifics. Sasuke ignored his teasing remark, instead staring down at his daughter who was currently on the verge of a tantrum.

"That was like, a billion times bigger than mine," she said frowning. "I'll never be that good."

"With that attitude, you won't." When he saw her expression turn from one of frustration to one of sadness, he cringed inwardly, hating the sight. "Look," he said, trying not to crush her spirits, "it takes a lot of practice to do it well. It took me weeks to do it when I was your age.  _Weeks_. If you practice a little bit every day, you'll master it in no time."

Sighing in defeat, she crossed her arms and walked away, still frowning. As Sasuke watched her retreating form, he immediately wondered if he'd done something wrong. He hadn't been harsh or mean, had he?

He ran a hand down his tired face, blinking away the fatigue he currently felt. He only had a few more hours left with her before she would be off to Suna and he'd be off toward Earth Country. He didn't want to part with her when she was upset; especially since he was apparently the cause of her discontent.

"She gets like that a lot," Sasuke turned to look at the Inuzuka man, who stood not too far away, with his arms crossed over his chest, "don't take it personally."

Sasuke glared at the man, not liking the canine handler one bit; and ever since their confrontation back in Konoha, he basically hated him. He did not reply to the comment, instead only choosing to stare back at him. There had to be some reason he was telling him this.

"Let's get this straight," Kiba said, taking a couple steps toward Sasuke and speaking in a low voice, "I don't like you. You don't like me. And that's all dandy and fine and whatever. But," he paused, glancing past Sasuke and toward Katahana, "I care about her just as much as everyone else here does." He looked back up at Sasuke, meeting his hard glare with one of his own. "We'll probably never get along, and I doubt neither of us gives a shit about that, but one thing that I'm sure we can agree on is that her safety is of the utmost importance here."

Kiba held his eyes for a long moment, waiting for a response from the Uchiha. "Yes, and your point?" Sasuke curtly replied.

"I'm just trying to tell you that we're all going to do our best and get her to Sunagakure as soon as possible," he inhaled, closing his eyes as if cringing about the words he was about to say. "But I'm trying to make it so you won't… worry as much."

"Why do you care?"

"I don't," he laughed, "But the Hyuuga sisters have been ragging on me all fucking week for calling you out back at that meeting. Something about how I need to be 'nicer'," he made a mocking noise as he made air quotes with his fingers. "I don't know what they're talking about truthfully, but hey," he shrugged as he began walking backward, toward where his gear lay, "whatever will keep them from complaining."

"Shut up, Kiba," a feminine voice groaned. Sasuke looked to see Hinata's younger sister, Hanabi, sitting a few feet away, currently adjusting the bindings on her leg.

"Hey, I'm doing you a favor here," he said, grinning at her, "maybe by 'making nice' and all, he'll be more pleasant to be around after our groups split up."

"Don't be an ass," she glared, throwing a nearby rock at him, missing his head by inches as he dodged the incoming projectile. Kiba mumbled to himself as he glared at the Hyuuga, to which she responded by giving him the finger.

From that point, Sasuke decided that he liked Hanabi.

* * *

During the last stretch of their run to the checkpoint, Sasuke frowned to himself, his mood low and optimism all but inexistent. Upon departing from their final resting area, Katahana had asked Kakashi to carry her instead; and Sasuke couldn't lie to himself. It made him feel lousy.

Kiba's words were of no comfort to him. If she reacted like this all the time, then was she always upset with whoever was training her at the moment? The thought that she'd still be unhappy with him even after the two teams split, made his head hurt and his chest ache with heavy emotion.

He wasn't cut out for this whole 'parenting' business.

After what seemed like a lifetime of thinking pessimistic thoughts, Sasuke's attention was brought back to the present world as the teams eventually reached their first destination. They were only a few miles away from the border of Fire Country. From here, his team would go North, and the other would go South.

"Alright, Sai," Shikamaru turned toward the ex-Root member, "send a message back to Konoha, letting them know that we're finally splitting and we're safe. Remember, once in the morning and once at night, send a new message back home. We'll be doing the same."

"We probably won't see each other from a while," Kakashi acknowledged, placing Katahana on her feet as each team made final preparations, "any ideas on how we'll keep each other updated on what's going on?"

"I've already thought about that," Shikamaru said with a grimace, "but since we'll never know where the other group is at any given time of day, sending messages through the air into unfamiliar territory isn't the best idea."

"So, I guess the next time we see each other will be either in Suna or back in Konoha, eh?"

"After we follow every possible lead, and—and after we find Sakura—we'll travel to Suna." Shikamaru immediately adjusted his speech as he noted the child looking up at him, listening to his every word.

Kakashi and Sasuke shared a quick look. So it must have been a common fact that the likelihood of finding Sakura alive was still slim; nevertheless, they all had an unspoken agreement that they'd be as optimistic about the situation as possible when Katahana was around.

Sasuke knew better though. He knew that she was sharper then they knew. She understood the gravity of the situation—her fearfulness and her crying over the past couple days had confirmed that.

"Hana," Ino called from a few meters away, "you ready?"

The young girl looked to Ino, nodding once before turning back toward the men. Lifting her head she met Sasuke's eyes, a sad look on her face. Lip trembling and eyes watering she ran to him, wrapping her arms around his waist tightly. Trying to muffle her sniffles in his shirt, she pressed her face into him, almost wrapping herself in his cloak to avoid the eyes of the other two men.

Kneeling down, he slowly removed her arms from him until he was at her eye-level. Once he released her arms, she quickly wrapped them around his neck tightly, resuming her hold on him.

Slowly, he hugged the child back, not having any comforting words to say to her. He could only hope that the embrace would be enough for her.

"Please," she cried into his shoulder, "please bring Mommy back." Her voice hiccupped as she pleaded with him, her small arms never once loosening their grip. "Tell her that I love her, and that I miss her, and that I'm sorry I wandered off, please?" she asked him in a small voice.

Upon hearing her request, he glanced up at Shikamaru and Kakashi. They'd both heard it, too.

"Wandered off?" he asked, as softly as he could, trying not to startle her or cause her sobbing to increase in ferocity.

She nodded into his neck, tears making his shirt damp. "The night we were split up, I walked off by myself," she continued to cry as she spoke, making it difficult to understand her, but not impossible.

"Why did you walk off?"

"I thought that maybe," sob, "I'd be able to get" sob, "to Gaara-san by" sob, "myself." She let out a heart-wrenching wail, pausing in her confession to release her hold on Sasuke and sink to the ground. She only cried harder, pressing her knees into the dirt and curling downward, her hands over her head. Sasuke took note that now everyone's attention was directed at Katahana, who currently lay in a crumpled mess before him.

"What happened after that?" Sasuke urged, leaning down and placing a shaky hand on her back. Unsettled by her breakdown and fearful for her own emotional wellbeing, he rubbed her back, hoping that the gesture would calm her some; or at least be of some comfort. He watched as Ino approached the group quickly, kneeling beside Sasuke, but not saying anything; her hands remained at her side.

"I got lost real quick and I got really scared," she cried, tears falling into the dirt beneath her, "so I turned back and tried to make my way back to Mommy. But it took me  _so_ long," she let out a small groan, "and when I got back to our campsite…"

With all her sobbing, she then let her body fall completely limp, opting to lie on the ground instead of look any of them in the eye. It wasn't even a second after she lay down that Sasuke picked her back up again, wrapping his arms around her and letting her cry against him once more.

Katahana's arms hung limply at her side, as if all her energy were being put into her powerful sobbing instead of keeping her body upright. She leaned her face against Sasuke and cried for a few more minutes, tiring herself out more with each breath she took.

No one said anything for a long moment; instead, they all opted to remain silent, waiting patiently for Katahana to continue. Throughout all the questions they'd asked her over the course of the week, she had told them next to nothing about the night she had gotten separated from Sakura. And now that she was confessing everything to them, unprovoked, made them afraid to ask anything. They didn't want her to clam up again, and hold this information inside any longer.

"Katahana," Sasuke eventually spoke up after a little while, alerting his teammates. With wide eyes, Ino and Kiba tried shaking their heads at him, silently urging him to remain quiet. They didn't want to risk losing the opportunity to finally gain vital information.

But, like always, he ignored them.

"What did you see?"

Her cries had finally quieted to the point where they were only mere whimpers. Lifting her heavy head she still refused to look him in the eye; now, she stared off to the side, toward the ground. Sasuke would not take silence as an answer though.

"Katahana, what happened?" he asked, a little more sternly this time. He ignored Ino as she put a hand on his shoulder and quietly told him to 'cut it out'. Instead he repeated himself. "What happened?"

Still not looking at his face, she leaned toward him as if to rest her head on his shoulder, but instead she cupped a hand around her mouth and put her lips against his ear. "There was blood everywhere," she whispered, her voice still shaky. "It—it was all over the place and—" Letting out a single weak sob, she spoke a bit louder. "I don't want her to be dead." She removed her mouth from his ear and finally looked at him.

Her eyes terrified him.

Suddenly he was 8 years old again. Looking into the mirror of the new bathroom of the small living quarters he'd been assigned to after the death of his clan. It'd been a month since their demise, and Sasuke was a broken mess. His eyes though. They turned empty and hopeless, losing all the light they'd once held.

He had vowed to himself to make it so she never knew the same pain he had known, and he'd already failed her.

Reaching behind him, he grabbed his pack and immediately began searching through it without once looking.

"Hey," he said quietly, trying to get her to focus on him, "do you remember when I said you're an Uchiha?" She nodded a couple times as she finally watched his face, paying close attention to his words. "Well, we Uchiha are a very strong clan, very powerful. That's you, Katahana. You are as strong as any other Uchiha." Finally pulling his arm out of his pack, crumpled in his fist was a white piece of cloth, "So you have to use that strength now."

Handing the cloth over to her, she unraveled it with shaky hands, discovering it to be a shirt. On the back of it, she traced her fingers across a red and white fan, carefully sewn into the fabric.

"Can you be strong now?" he asked quietly, watching her expression carefully as she examined the large shirt. It was one of the only articles of clothing he still had in his possession that had the Uchiha symbol stitched on it.

"For Mom?" she asked in a small voice, eyes reaching his once more.

"For Mom," he confirmed with a nod. "As long as you have that, you need to remember who you are. And remember that you are strong."

Nodding fervently at his words, she threw her arms around his neck once more, squeezing tightly. "Thank you, Dad," she whispered. Releasing her embrace she made a move to walk up to Ino, but hesitated, looking back at Sasuke once more.

Leaning forward she hugged him again, landing a quick kiss on his cheek.

"Bye Dad," she said, releasing him for a final time. Then walking up to Ino, she grabbed the woman's hand and waved toward Shikamaru. "Bye," she said, finally offering up a small smile.

From there, Ino led her over toward Kiba and Akamaru, before lifting her up and onto the large dog's back. Sasuke watched as she leaned forward on the canine, resting her head against its back and grabbing its fur in her hands.

Before he'd even picked himself up off of the ground, they had left, moving quickly toward their next, and final, destination: Suna.

As Shikamaru offered him a hand, Sasuke stared at it, still absorbing everything that had just transpired. Then, shaking himself out of his stupor, he decided to accept the assistance, grabbing Shikamaru's hand and allowing him to help him off the muddy ground.

He might as well start getting used to accepting help now.

He was definitely going to need it.


End file.
